"The Thames is Liquid History" John Burns Hand Written Note for Sale

"The Thames is Liquid History" John Burns Hand Written Note For Sale

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"The Thames is Liquid History" John Burns Hand Written Note:
$299.99

Up for sale "The Thames is Liquid History" John Burns Hand Written Note On 4X5.5 Card.

ES-5447E

John

Elliot Burns (20 October 1858

– 24 January 1943) was an English trade unionist and politician, particularly associated

with London politics and Battersea. He was a socialist and then

a Liberal Member of

Parliament and Minister. He was anti-alcohol and a

keen sportsman. After retiring from politics, he developed an expertise

in London history and

coined the phrase "The Thames is liquid history". When the Liberal

cabinet made a decision for war on 2 August 1914, he resigned and played no

further role in politics. Burns was born in London in 1858, the son of Alexander Burns, a Scottish fitter, growing up with his railwayman father in

a house at 80 Grant Road, Battersea on what is now the Winstanley and York Road Estates. He attended he was ten years old.

He then had a succession of jobs until he was fourteen years old and started a

seven-year apprenticeship to an engineer at Millbank and continued his

education at night-schools. He read

extensively, especially the works of Robert Owen, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Paine and William Cobbett. A French fellow-worker, Victor Delahaye, who

had been present during the Paris Commune introduced him to socialist ideas, and

Burns claimed that he was converted because he found the arguments of J. S.

Mill against it to be insufficient. He began practising outdoor speaking, with

the advantage of exceptional physical strength and a strong voice. In

1878, he was arrested and held overnight for addressing an open-air

demonstration on Clapham Common. He worked

at his trade in various parts of England, having joined the Amalgamated

Society of Engineers in 1879. In 1881 he formed a branch of

the Social Democratic

Federation (SDF) in Battersea. He worked on a ship, and went for a year to the

West African coast at the mouth of the Niger as

a foreman engineer for the United Africa Company. He disapproved of treatment of Africans and spent his earnings on a six months' tour to

study political and economic conditions in France, Germany and Austria. Burns delivered a speech at the Industrial

Remuneration Conference in 1884 which attracted considerable attention, and in

that year he was elected to the Social Democratic Federation's executive

council. He stood for Parliament in the 1885 was unsuccessful. A year later, he took part in a

London demonstration against unemployment which resulted in the West End riots

when the windows of the Carlton Club and other London clubs were broken, where he

encouraged rioters to loot bakeries. He was arrested and later acquitted at

the Old Bailey of charges of conspiracy and sedition. He was arrested again the following year on 13

November 1887 for resisting police attempts to break up an unlicensed meeting

in Trafalgar Square. The

demonstration ended in the 'Bloody Sunday' clashes;

Burns was imprisoned for six weeks. In August 1889, Burns played a major part

in the London Dock Strike. By

this time he had left the SDF and, with fellow socialist Tom Mann, was focusing on trade union activity as a leader of

the New Unionist movement. With other London radicals such as Ben Tillett, Will Crooks and John Benn, Burns ('The Man

with the Red Flag') helped win the

dispute. He was still working at his trade in Hoe's printing machine works and

was an active member of the executive of the Amalgamated Engineers' Union. In

1889, he became a Progressive member of

the first London County Council for Battersea.

He was supported by his constituents, who subscribed an allowance of £2 a week.

He devoted his efforts against private monopolies and introduced a motion in

1892 that all contracts for the County Council should be paid at trade union

rates and carried out under trade union conditions. As a local politician,

Burns is particularly noted for his role in the creation of Battersea's Latchmere Estate, the first municipal housing estate built using a council's own

direct labour force, officially opened in 1903. He was connected with the Trades Union Congresses until

1895.