Celebrating Hampshire's Historians

Burgess, Lawrence Arthur

22 September 1901 - 16 May 1983

Burgess was born in Chelmsford but at the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his parents in Kingston-upon-Thames. By 1939 he had moved to Southampton holding the post of Deputy Librarian since 1934. At the time he was the only professional librarian on the staff. He remained in the Library Service until his retirement in 1966. He was a founder member of the Friends of Old Southampton and supported the Southampton Archaeological Society and City of Southampton Society. A keen interest in the preservation and utilisation of Southampton’s archives was instrumental in him salvaging, during the Second World War, the Page and Moody (a firm of solicitors) collection of ‘mainly 18th- and 19th-century Southampton Corporation records’ and much else. These were on the verge of being destroyed and his rescue of them has been justifiably commended. For much of his life he lived in Warwick Road, Upper Shirley.

Sources

• Sotonopedia http://sotonopedia.wikidot.com/page-browse:burgess-lawrence-a

• Familiar and Forgotten, illustrated Local Lives from Southampton’s Collections, Southampton City Art Gallery, 15 September 2006 – 7 January 2007

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

In 1954, he and H.S. Faircloth produced for the Education Committee of the County Borough of Southampton, a series of ten historical perspective maps of Southampton 250 BC to 1950 AD, in black and white, intended to ‘show the development of … [the] town through the ages’. Burgess supplied the historical information and Faircloth applied his drawing skills.

Relevant published works

• Burgess, LA  and Faircloth, HS (1954) Historical Perspectives, Southampton

• Burgess, LA  (1964) The Origins of Southampton,  Leicester University Press

• Burgess, LA , ed (1976) Southampton Terrier of 1454,(Southampton

Critical Comments

Burgess was keen to set the record straight in his book about the origins of Southampton. As he wrote: ‘The genesis of the present enquiry lay, as is not unusual in such cases, in dissatisfaction with the orthodox explanations’ (The Origins of Southampton, p. 5).

Other Comments

An example of one of the black and white historical perspectives (for 1900) is shown below.

These have since been coloured as the Sotonopedia entry illustrates. Each illustration was accompanied by a short commentary highlighting changes to the townscape since the preceding one.

Contributor

Roger Ottewill, 17 October 2021

Key Words

Southampton, Friends of Old Southampton, archives, Southampton Corporation Records

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