Montagu Burrows

Montagu Burrows (27 October 1819 - 10 July 1905) was a British historian. Following a career as an officer in the Royal Navy, he was the first Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, holding the Chair from 1862 until his death. He was probably the first academic to lecture on naval history at Oxford or at any university in Britain.

Born in Hadley, England, the son of a Lieutenant-General Montagu Burrows (1775–1848) of the British Army and his wife, Mary Ann Pafford, daughter of Captain Joseph Larcom, Royal Navy, Montagu Burrows attended Kingsmills' Boys School in Southampton and entered the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth in 1832. In 1834, he joined HMS Andromache as a midshipman, and then returned to the College as a mate in 1842. He served on anti-piracy patrols on the East Indies Station under Henry Ducie Chads and was decorated for his service at the bombardment of Acre in 1840. Burrows became an instructor in gunnery in HMS Excellent for six years from 1846. Promoted to Commander in 1852, he decided to study at Oxford and was placed on half-pay.

While on half pay, Burrows matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and read for the final school of literae humaniores. Obtaining first-class honours in 1856, he continued his studies and in 1857 obtained another "first" in the newly established School of Law and History. He is believed to have been the first person, as well as the oldest, to obtain a "double first" at Oxford in these subjects. For the following five years, he tutored students preparing for their examinations and published a popular guide to Oxford undergraduate examinations called Pass and Class.

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