Sir Montague Maurice Burton (1885-1952)

Sir Montague Maurice Burton (1885-1952), founder of the Burton men’s clothing chain, endowed Edinburgh University’s Montague Burton Chair of International Relations in 1948.

Early Years

Burton was born as Meshe David Osinsky in Kurkel, Russia (now Lithuania). Of Jewish parentage, he began to study at a yeshiva in his early teens, with a view to becoming a rabbi. In 1900, however, he fled the proliferating anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia, and emigrated to England. By 1904, he had adopted the name of Morris Burton and opened a small clothing shop in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. By 1908, when he had settled on the forenames Maurice Montague, he had opened a second shop in Mansfield and a clothing factory in Leeds. The following year, he married Sophia Amelia Marks, daughter of a Worksop furniture dealer. The couple moved to Sheffield where they had four children.

Burton Clothing

Concentrating on producing smart affordable clothing for the working man, Burton oversaw a rapid development of his business, adding a total of fourteen branches in Northern English industrial towns by the outbreak of the First World War. Burton was exempted from war service on account of continuing ill-health and his work as a contractor supplying military uniforms. Indeed, the demand for uniforms and subsequently demob suits provided a major stimulus to his business.

The number of Burton shops increased massively during the interwar years, rising from 40 in 1919 to 595 by 1939. By 1925, Burton’s Leeds clothing factory was the largest in Europe, employing over 10,000 people. The business was converted into a public company in March 1929, registered as ‘Montague Burton, The Tailor of Taste, Ltd’. Burton also developed a considerable property portfolio which included the offices, restaurants, and entertainment facilities developed above the shop space. After Burton again supplied the British forces with uniforms during Second World War, the business continued to expand, buying out rival department store retailers Peter Robinson Ltd and Stagg and Russell Ltd. At the time of Burton’s death in 1952, the chain was branching out into women’s clothing.

Burton and Industrial Relations

Burton placed great emphasis on industrial co-operation and staff welfare. He was an advocate of collective bargaining and industrial arbitration, and insisted on high wages and first-rate working conditions. His factories were not only equipped with modern staff canteens, employee rest-rooms, but incorporated medical, dental, and ophthalmic surgeries. In addition, the company offered facilities for sporting activities, clubs, and societies, and promoted sick benefit and holiday saving clubs.

Burton and International Relations

Burton published frequently on the subjects of industrial co-operation and the international order. His ideas are most cogently expressed in the book The Middle Path (1943) which argues for a world federation able to decide and implement international political decisions, and stresses the importance of free and fair trade and industry. His commitment to promoting international understanding led him to establish branches of the League of Nations at his factories and to endow chairs of international relations at universities in Jerusalem, Oxford, Edinburgh, and London, and lectureships at Nottingham and Leeds. On endowing the Edinburgh chair in 1948, Burton defined its purpose as 'foster the study of International Relations and thus further the attainment of universal peace and the brotherhood of man based on the ideals of the United Nations Organisation'. His interest in industrial relations also led him to establish chairs in that subject at Leeds, Cardiff,and Cambridge. Burton was knighted for his work in the interest of international peace in 1931 and an honorary doctorate from Leeds University in 1944. A major philanthropist, Burton not only endowed academic chairs, but supported a wide range of educational and charitable institutions in Britain and Palestine.

Sources

• Andrew Alexander, 'Burton, Sir Montague Maurice (1885–1952)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)