Thomas Burns

Thomas Burns, Tommy Burns or Tom Burns may refer to:

Politics

Sports

Other persons

Thomas Burns (Scottish minister)

Rev Dr Thomas Burns CBE DD TD FRSE FSA FCTB (1853-1938) was a Scottish minister and strong campaigner for the blind. As Chair of the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh he was the creator of the Thomas Burns Home which was named after him. He was also an author on several historical subjects.

Life

He was born in Lesmahagow on 3 March 1853 the son of Rev Thomas Burns and Agnes MacLeod McNaughton.

He was educated at Glasgow High School. He was licensed to minister 1876 and ordained into Melville parish, near Montrose, Aberdeenshire in 1877. From there he moved to the Lady Glenorchy Church in Edinburgh's Southside, where he served for most of his life.

In Edinburgh he also took on many additional duties, joining the Edinburgh School Board in 1888, and in 1894 taking on his most famous role, as Chairman of the Royal Blind School. In 1888 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In the First World War he saw active service as an Army Chaplain, rising to the rank of Major. He was Mentioned in Dispatches.

Thomas Burns (minister)

Thomas Burns (1796 – 23 January 1871) was a prominent early European settler and religious leader of the province of Otago, New Zealand.

Burns was baptised at Mauchline, Ayrshire, Scotland in April 1796, the son of estate manager Gilbert Burns, who was the brother of the poet Robert Burns. In his childhood Thomas attended Haddington Grammar School and then the University of Edinburgh, where he studied theology. In 1826, he was ordained as minister of the parish of Ballantrae, and in 1830 married Clementina Grant, the daughter of an episcopal minister in Edinburgh. The couple lived in Monkton, where Clementina's uncle had been Presbyterian minister.

At the age of 47, Burns joined the Free Church secession from the Church of Scotland. The proposal for a Free Church settlement in New Zealand gained Burns's interest, and he was offered the position of minister of the New Edinburgh scheme (later the Otago scheme) in June 1843. Burns and William Cargill established a lay association to promote the settlement in May 1845.