Making a Connection with the Burrell Collection
I recently attended an RNLI Service of Remembrance at Girvan RNLI Station and discovered the lifeboat at Girvan is named after the daughter of Sir William Burrell who donated his staggering 8,000 "very collectable items" to the City of Glasgow. Naturally for a shipbuilder's daughter, she was interested in all things maritime. I found the following eulogy to Marion/Sylvia Burrell in the Lifeboat Station Office.
"Sylvia Burrell was the daughter of Sir William Burrell, the eminent ship owner, who donated his art collection to the City of Glasgow. William and Constance Burrell were a devoted couple but their marriage was blessed with only one child and when a baby daughter was born at their home in Glasgow they named her Marion. The Burrell’s had high hopes for their child and she launched one of her father’s fleet and thereafter sustained a lifelong interest in ships and all who sail in them. Marion was educated at Heathfield, near Ascot, and then at a finishing school in Paris. Like her father, she was gifted with a lively intelligence and she learned to share his love for travel and beautiful things.
In 1914, the Burrell’s left Glasgow and rented a succession of country houses, including Rozelle in Ayrshire, until 1927 when Hutton Castle in Berwickshire became their permanent home. By this time Miss Burrell had grown into an extremely attractive young lady and there were plenty of suitors to seek her hand. Her parents hoped she would marry well. Marion was launched into London society but while Sir William expected to make the decisions, his daughter had a mind of her own. There were three broken engagements and Marion never married.
When war came in 1939, Burrell’s daughter was glad to serve as a VAD, but afterwards she was unhappy at Hutton and finally left home to make her own way and use the skills she had learned as a nurse. She was 47. After her parents died, Miss Burrell bought a flat in Edinburgh and continued to live very simply. Fiercely independent and delightfully eccentric, she changed her name to ‘Silvia’ at the age of 75 but she would not reveal why.
Sylvia Burrell had the grace of a queen, the knowledge of a professor and the audacity of a school girl. She was fascinating, she was fun, and wherever she went she made friends. Above all Sylvia admired courage and so she became a passionate supporter of the RNLI. During her declining years, Miss Burrell knitted warm woollen mitts and sent them to lifeboat crews all around the coasts of Britain. Sadly, her eyesight failed before she was able to complete one thousand mitts. Scotland’s Burrell Collection arose from the fortune made by one man, through his ships and men who sail the seas. In thanks, his daughter has endowed the Girvan Lifeboat , RNLB ‘Sylvia Burrell’."
Sylvia Burrell - 1902-1992
Posted by Norma Clarkson on 20 October 2011