This name is remembered on the St Andrew's War Memorial, inside St Andrew's Church, Landor Road, Stockwell, London SW9
Leopold C. Burrows
(Leopold Charles Burrows)
(Burrows, Leopold C.)
Service no 203733
Able Seaman, Royal Navy, (RFR/CH/B/10748). H.M.S. "Hogue."
Died 22 September 1914
De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour 1914-1918 states that he was "lost in action in the North Sea"
Remembered at Chatham Naval Memorial and inside St Andrew's
Information from the censuses
Leopold Burrows was not related to Archie J. Burrows, who appears above him on the St Andrew's war memorial. Leopold's father's name was John Rabinowitz/Robinowitz, who was born in Norway ("Fredricksland", "Friedrichstadt") as a Russian subject. He was mostly probably Jewish. Rabinowitz is on the 1871 census. He was living as a boarder at Whittaker Street, Westminster and working as a police constable.
The 1891 census describes him as a "warrant officer", by which time he is living at 6 Devonshire Road, West Ham. He is described as "Russia[n], not naturalised" and he was married to Ellen Rabinowitz, 38 and born in Cranbourne, Dorset. Two children have been born by then, Leopold, then 4 and named Leopold Raboniwitz, and born at Herne Bay, and Vera, 5, born at Stratford, Essex. A 14-year-old general domestic servant, Fanny Newton, born in Stratford, lived in.
By 1901 the family had moved to West Brixton. They were living at 78 Ballater Road, SW2, and Leopold was still using the name Rabinowitz. However, 10 years later, as shown on the 1911 census, Leopold had changed his name to Burrows by deed poll. Possibly he was finding that, away from the East End, a foreign name was a hindrance in life.
The 1911 census shows that John Rabinowitz had retired, drawing a police pension and was working as a hotel porter. Leopold was working as a railway clerk and his 24-yera-old brother Ferdinand, not previously shown on the available censuses (I can't trace the family on the 1881 census), was a stock broker's clerk.