Overview
Partick is an area in the West End of Glasgow. (For more information on this area, see the entry for ‘Partick, Glasgow. Origins & History‘ on the ScotCities website). This was a fairly large Burns club, having 213 members in 1896. Membership would drop in the next year to 113, before rising again to 155 in 1902.
The late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century issues of the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory only offer lists of the office bearers, and the number of members on the roll for the years given above. A more detailed history is available on the club’s website:
‘History
The Partick Burns Club was instituted in 1885 and has met to honour Robert Burns every January since then, with the exception of some years during the First and Second World Wars. The Club was founded by the merchants, trades people and members of the Burgh council and the Presidents up to 1912 (when Partick was incorporated into greater Glasgow) were almost uniquely the Provosts of the Burgh.
The Club survived incorporation into Glasgow and between the wars continued its Annual membership. Thanks to the chain of office the names of the Presidents are recorded, however little else of this part of the Club’s history is known. After the Second World War, the suppers continued, however again, with the exception of the names of Presidents, little else is known […]
Originally and up to the Great War the Supper venues were local hotels and the Partick Burgh Hall itself.’
(‘About Us’, The Partick Burns Club <http://thepartickburnsclub.org/about-us/> [accessed 21/03/18])
Date of Existence
1885-present. Federated 1895
Source of Information
1. (Member’s card for John White Jr Esq; small printed advertisement for Partick Burns Club Annual Dinner, 25 January 1887) (MLSC, Glasgow Scrapbooks, No. 21, p. 136);
2. (Newspaper clipping:) ‘Partick Burns Club’, The Press, 31 January 1891 (on annual dinner of the club, 26 January 1891) (MLSC, Glasgow Scrapbooks, No. 21, pp. 178-79);
3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1896’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. V (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1896), p. 136;
4. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1897’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1897), p. 155;
5. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1902’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1902), p. 140;
6. The Partick Burns Club Homepage <http://thepartickburnsclub.org/about-us/> [accessed 21/03/18];
7. ‘Partick Burns Club’, ‘Burns Clubs’, Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_Clubs> [accessed 21/09/15]
Repository
Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC) (Glasgow Scrapbooks, and Annual Burns Chronicle)
National Library of Scotland (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
Reference Number
BNS19BUR (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
General Reading Room (stored offsite), Y.233, available no. 1-34 25th Jan. 1892-Jan. 1925 (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
Additional Notes
‘BC‘ refers to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, which was published yearly since 1892. Hard copies are available at the Mitchell Library Special Collections and the National Library of Scotland. Many of them have been digitised and are available through the Robert Burns World Federation website: http://www.rbwf.org.uk/digitised-chronicles/.
This list of Burns chronicles as sources of information gives the first year the club was included in the chronicle, and thereafter only for the years where the information is different from the previous year’s listing. In keeping with the scope of this study (1800-1914), only the chronicles published between 1892 and 1914 are included.