Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Robbie Burns

Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, was born January 25, 1759. I'm proud to say that my grandfather, as a founding member of the Vancouver Burns Fellowship and as Hon. Secretary of the Burns Statue Fund, was instrumental in having the statue of Burns erected in Stanley Park. The unveiling took place on Saturday, August 25th, 1928, and was attended by Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister of Great Britain -- an appropriate tribute to a poet who was a champion of liberal and socialist ideals.