- Header
- Sir Sydney Burney
- Also known as
-
Sir Sydney Burney
-
primary name: Burney, Sydney Bernard
- Details
- individual; dealer/auction house; military/naval; British; Male
- Life dates
- Jun 1878-3 Jan 1951
- Address
- 13 St James Place, London SW1 (at least from 1928 to 1934 and again at least from 1938 to 1939);37 Great Cumberland Place, London W1 (in 4 April 1936); 34 Bruton Street, Bond Street, London W1 (at least from 20 July 1936 to 1937); 121 Gloucester Place (1942); 26 Conduit Street, London W1 (from at least 1944 until his death in 1951); 1, Burlington Gdns, W.1. (1950)
- Biography
- Born Sydney Samuel Birnbaum in June 1878 to Bernard Birnbaum, a Russian-born (b. 1832) naturalised manufacturer of oiled waterproofed clothing (founded 1858, with factory and works and later branches in New York, Melbourne and Wellington), and Rebecca Birnbaum (b. 1839). Sydney was the youngest of ten children living at 28 Highbury Grove noted in the 1881 census (Henry, b. 1863, Priscilla, b. 1864, Rudolph, b. 1868, Ilinia, b. 1869, Gertrude, b. 1870, Albert, b. 1871, Eve, b. 1873, Mary, b. 1874, Katy, b. 1876). Bernard Birnbaum’s business is well-documented, as is his place in the Anglo-Jewish community. He died in 1911 having just reached 80 years of age. His place of residence is recorded as being 36 Devonshire Place. In August 1914, Albert and Sydney both changed their name to Burney by deed poll, with Sydney also his father’s name Bernard instead of Samuel. He was therefore henceforth known as Sydney Bernard Burney. He gave his profession as ‘Managing Director of Robert Bell Limited, of 175, Great Portland-street, London’. Robert Bell Ltd was a manufacturer and dealer of automobiles, wound up in 1922.
Little has been found about Burney’s younger life. He married in July 1900, aged 22. His spouse was Beatrix Leah Ellis (b. 1876), known as Trixie. They had three daughters: Dorothea (Dotie, b. 1902), Barbara (b. Jan 1907-d. Sep. 1914) and Phyllis (b. 1910).
Dotie married Captain Frederick Oliver St John, eldest son of Sir Frederick St John in 1923, divorced 1929. At the time of the marriage, her father’s address is given as 7 Porcester Sq. Her second marriage was to Captain Cyril Bruce Seagrim, which gave a son, Christopher Bruce Seagrim (b. 1930 – d. 2017), and further descendants. Phyllis was engaged to the artist Theyre Lee Elliot, but no marriage has been found.
In the years 1909 and 1914, there are records of a Mr Sydney Birnbaum singing in London, possibly Burney. Burney is also thought to have served in the European war, but neither his British Army Service Records, nor British Armed Forces WW1 Medical Records have been consulted for this record. He is referred to as Captain Burney in the London Gazette in 1918, when he would have been aged 40, and was awarded the OBE. He worked as Assistant-Director of Voluntary Organisations (dates presently unclear). The role of Director General was held by Sir Edward Ward, and the role involved coordinating the distribution of donations to military hospitals and troops. He would later be awarded the CBE (by 1931). By 1928, aged 50, he was operating as an antique dealer, placing regular adverts in newspapers in England and Ireland soliciting ‘sculpture’. It is unclear how and why he made this leap.
Awarded an OBE (by 1931).
Burney was President of the British Antique Dealers' Association. He was also the inspiration behind The Model Modern Art Gallery, part of an exhibition in Chesterfield House in 1934 to raise money for the Greater London Fund for the Blind. This gallery was reconstituted in Pallant House, 9 North Pallant, Chichester in 1997, and the catalogue contains a photograph of Burney and an Appreciation (p. 4) by his grandson in which Burney is described as 'a man of Tao who "left no wheel tracks"'. He was 74 when he died in January 1951.
- Bibliography
- 'Who Was Who', Vol.V, 1951-1960.
See his entry in CARP (Chinese Art - Research into Provenance) http:// www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/admn/php/carp/search.php