Ovapedia search :

At the time of the 1866 edition of Kelly’s Directory Major General Robert Burn was living at 7 Marine Parade.  Born in Scotland, he joined the Royal Artillery as a Second Lieutenant in 1812 and was promoted First Lieutenant in 1815.  He married his first wife Letitia Crofton in Dublin in 1829, presumably meeting her when posted to Ireland.  They had six children, Robert - 1830, Frances - 1832, Henry - 1833, Robert - 1835, John MacVicar - 1838, and Janet Letitia born in Woolwich in 1841.  In that year disaster struck because his wife Letitia died in the first quarter of 1841 possibly during, or as a result of, the birth. 

In 1851 Robert Burn’s youngest child Letitia was living in London with her uncle William Burn 1789-1870 (a successful architect in Edinburgh and London).  This was presumably a good arrangement for a serving officer who was a widower.  Robert was promoted to Major in 1846 and had reached the rank of Colonel by November 1854 (1).  In 1852 at Woolwich when he was a Lieutenant Colonel he published a technical dictionary and dedicated it to Field Marshall, the Marquis of Anglesey (2). 

Robert appears to have been sent on an important mission to America by the government and the evidence for this is in Hansard in March 1855 where there is a record of an account of discussions relating to the “Estimates for Expenses for Supplies to be incurred by the Ordinance Department”.  A committee had been set up in the previous parliamentary session to consider the proposal to build a large factory where machinery would be employed to manufacture 150,000 muskets.   

After this committee reported three people were sent to America to investigate their small arms factories and to purchase machinery.  These people were “Colonel Burn of the Royal Artillery, a distinguished officer”, Captain Ward, who was an expert in small arms manufacture, and a Mr Anderson.  There was only one Colonel Burn in the Army List at the time and that was Robert Burn.  Colonel Burn wrote from America “the more they had seen of the operation of the musketry machinery in America … the more they were convinced of the absolute necessity of a radical change in our system, and of our establishing a complete and permanent organisation to enable us to secure a continuous supply of the best articles at a cheap rate”.  

Colonel Burn applied for permission to spend more than the £10,000 they had been allocated and his positive report caused the committee to authorise them to spend £17,000. The Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield Middlesex was built by 1856 and contained a machine shop built on American mass-production lines, using American machinery powered by steam engines (3). The shop was based on a design by John Anderson (presumably the Anderson who was sent to America) and built by the Royal Engineers. 

His work in America no doubt accelerated Colonel Burn’s promotion to Major General in 1864 but before then he had remarried on 31st January 1856, at Old Charlton Church, Kent (close to Woolwich), to Caroline Mary Rosdew  Little.  She was the only daughter of Major Little of the Royal Marines(4) who was barrack master at Woolwich. The couple had two children, Herbert born in Scotland in 1857 and Charles born in the Hendon Registration District in 1859 (5). Disaster struck again because Robert’s wife Caroline died when her second child was born or shortly afterwards and in the 1861 census he is recorded as living in Harrow, Middlesex, with his unmarried daughter Letitia, from his first marriage, and the two young sons from his second marriage.  

He moved to Budleigh Salterton at some time during the 1860s to appear in the 1866 Directory in Marine Parade, and would have had the two young boys with him who probably had some of their early education locally.  Possibly he moved after 1865 because in October of that year his daughter Letitia was married in Woolwich to Lieutenant Robert Burn Singer, the youngest son of the Bishop of Meath (6).  

The family moved on to 5 Pittfield Crescent, Cheltenham (7) and the two boys attended as day boys at the newly built Cheltenham College.  Charles left in June 1872 at the age of 13 and, after attendance at The Royal Military College, Sandhurst (1877-78), he joined the 8th Hussars.  He later became Captain in the 1st Dragoons in 1885 when he was Aide-de-Camp to the Earl of Dufferin, Viceroy of India in1884-5, & 1887-88 (see further information on Charles below).  

It is not clear when Robert’s son Herbert left school but he joined the militia and then transferred to the army (1st Foot, September 1878 & 21st Hussars November 1878).  He made Captain in 1883 and died in Bangalore in October 1889. 

In August 1868 Robert Burn was made a Colonel-Commandant of the Royal Artillery and promoted to General in October 1877 (8). He died in Cheltenham in December 1878. 

Charles Rosdew Burn:  

He was Robert Burn’s youngest child.  After service in India he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Dragoons and served in the Hazara Expedition in 1888, receiving the medal and clasp and being mentioned in despatches.  He was also in the South African War in 1900 (medal with 3 clasps).  He was ADC to His Majesty the King 1910-1926 and a Member of Parliament for Torquay from 1910-1923.  In WW1 he was twice mentioned in despatches and was made an Officer of the Legion of Honour, Officer of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, and received the O.B.E (9).  

He had married Ethel Louise Forbes-Leith in 1891 and when her father Alexander John Forbes-Leith (Baron Leith of Fyvie) died without male issue in November 1925, Charles Burn, as his son in law, inherited the title, becoming Colonel Sir Charles Rosdew Forbes-Leith of Fyve, 1st Bart. 

Compiled and researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010 

1.Hart’s Army List 1865

2.A Naval and Military Technical Dictionary of the French Language in Two Parts French-English, English-French with Explanations of the Various Terms by Lieut. Colonel Burn. John Murray 1852

3.www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Snider-Enfield

4.http://pearlspad.net.nz/MARRIAGES.htm

5.1861 census and freebmd.com

6.The Cork Examiner18thOctober1865

7.1871 Census

8.The London Gazette, August 1868 & October 1877

9.Burke’s landed gentry of Great Britain

93 BS-B-00027 Biography any