SIR

See also:

• GEORGE
• GEORGE, 8TH MARQUESS OF TWEEDDALE (1787-1876)
• GEORGE, HENRY (1839—1897)
• GEORGE, LAKE
• GEORGE, SAINT (d. 303)

GEORGE

See also:

• BURNS, JOHN (1858– )
• BURNS, ROBERT (1759-1796)
• SIR GEORGE BURNS

BURNS  , Bart . (1795—1890), English shipowner, was born in Glasgow on the loth of December 1995, the son of the Rev . John Burns . In partnership with a brother, James, he began as a Glasgow general merchant about 1818, and in 1824 in conjunction with a Liverpool partner, Hugh Matthie, started a line of small sailing ships which ran between Glasgow and Liverpool . As business increased the vessels were also sailed to Belfast, and steamers afterwards replaced the sailing ships . In 183o a partnership was entered into with the Mclvers of Liverpool, in which George Burns devoted himself specially to the management of the ships . In 1838 with Samuel Cunard, Robert Napier and other capitalists, the partners (McIver and Burns) started the " Cunard " Atlantic line of steamships . They secured the British government's contract for the carrying of the mails to North America . The sailings were begun with four steamers of about loon tons each, which made the passage in 15 days at some 81 knots per hour . George Burns retired from the Glasgow management of the line in 186o . He was made a baronet in 1889, but died on the 2nd of June 1890 at Castle Wemyss, where he had spent the latter years of his life . John Burns (1829–1901), his eldest son, who succeeded him in the baronetcy, and became head of the Cunard Company, was created a peer, under the title of Baron Inverclyde, in 1897; he was the first to suggest to the government the use of merchant vessels for war purposes .

George

Arbuthnot Burns (1861—1905) succeeded his father in the peerage, as 2nd baron Inverclyde, and became chairman of the Cunard Company in 1902 . He conducted the negotiations which resulted in the refusal of the Cunard Company to enter the shipping combination, the International Mercantile Marine Company, formed by Messrs J . P . Morgan & Co., and took a leading part in the application of turbine engines to ocean liners .