Journalist.
Born at Bosbury, Herefordshire, England on 18 September 1853, son of A. J. Burrows, he came to Canada in March 1873 and worked as manager of the Standard Printing Company at Elora, Ontario. The following year, he joined the editorial staff of the Guelph Herald, becoming its editor in 1875 and managing proprietor in 1877. He sold his interest in the business to his partner in 1879 and came to Winnipeg where he worked on a number of publications, including the Daily Times, Manitoba Free Press, and Nor’West Farmer. As President of Acton Burrows Company he published Canadian Transportation, The Manitoban, The Morning Call, and The Western World.
In June 1882, on the organization of the Manitoba Department of Agriculture and Statistics, he was appointed Deputy Minister, adding Health to his portfolio the next year. He resigned the position in 1887. He was joint honorary secretary of the Liberal-Conservative party convention in Toronto in 1878, and honorary organizer for the Conservative party in Manitoba in the 1891 general election. He served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Selkirk Club (1882), Dufferin Park Association (1882), Winnipeg Sanitary Association (1882), Winnipeg General Hospital (1882-1884), and Manitoba Club (1883-1884). He was one of the founders of the St. George’s Society in Winnipeg (1880). In 1898, he moved to Ottawa, Ontario.
He died at Toronto, Ontario on 15 November 1948.
A Political Manual of the Province of Manitoba and the North-West Territories by J. P. Robertson, Winnipeg: Call Printing Company, 1887.
“Acton Burrows, pioneer west newsman, dies,” Winnipeg Tribune, 15 November 1948. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B10 page 60]
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 6 June 2022
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