Friday 13th February 2026  

Louie Burrows

Louisa (known as Louie) Burrows was born in Ilkeston on 13th February 1888, the eldest child of Alfred and Louisa Ann Burrows. The family moved to Quorn in 1908 and lived at Coteshale, which was originally 7 Chaveney Road, renumbered in 1938/39 to no. 15 and finally renumbered in the 1950s to 33 Chaveney Road. Louie's father was a peripatetic handicraft teacher and moved his family to Quorn from Cossall, Nottinghamshire when he moved schools.

Louie was at one time engaged to D. H Lawrence (from December of 1910 to February 1912) and he based the character of Ursula on her in his famous work The Rainbow'. She was also his inspiration for the poem 'Kisses in the Train'.

Louie had met Lawrence at Nottingham University College and both of them became teachers - he at Croydon and she at Leicester. In 1909 she became headmistress at Ratcliffe on the Wreake for two years. Lawrence often visited Louie by arriving at Quorn Great Central Railway Station on the train from Marylebone. In 1910 Lawrence wrote to his mother, who was ill in Leicester Hospital " I have been to Leicester today and have met a girl who has always been warm to me - like a sunny happy day - and I've asked her to marry me: in the train quite unpremeditated between Rothley and Quorn".

In a letter to Louie he says "When I think of you, it is like thinking of life. You will be the first woman to make the earth glad for me, You are strong and rosy as the gates of Eden. You are like Canaan - rich and fruitful and glad, and I love you" Lawrence made his conditions for marriage that he should have saved £100 in cash and have achieved £120 a year income. In 1912 however, Lawrence caused much grief when he met Freida Weekley and left an unhappy Louise. She remained devoted to him and in 1930 visited his grave at Vence in France.

Louie Burrows was headmistress at Quorn Infants School from 1911 to 1924 before moving eventually to Newry Primary School in Leicester. From the records she was obviously a very good head teacher. She also left her mark by her efforts to fight for the rights of women teachers and became a key figure in organising meetings in Leicestershire. In 1940 she married Frederick Heath. She retired in 1941 and died in 1962

- As postscript, in July 2024, Philip MacDonald got in touch with the museum team with the following story:
As a five year old boy in about 1954, he and his family moved from Birstall to 33 Chaveney Road, ie where Louie Burrows once lived. Philip continues:

“Sadly my late father John Colin Hartshorne McDonald (always known as Colin) was a generally impatient man and had absolutely no idea about the amazing finds he had made when searching through the roof space of the house some years after we had moved there!

He discovered several boxes, in the roof space, which were all full of postcards and love letters, tied with red or pink ribbon, with an unrecognisable signature (in their opened envelopes) all addressed to a Miss L. Burrows, there were also quite a significant number of un-franked penny red & black stamps as well. My elder brother Ian Robert McDonald, who at that time collected stamps, saved several of them and gave the remaining good ones to his friends at Loughborough Grammar School.

As for all the rest as well as the boxes of letters and cards, my Father simply burnt them in the boiler!!! It was only some years later that my Mother, Kathleen Joyce McDonald (but always known as Joyce) discovered the truth about the dreadful deeds committed by my Father.”

The museum team found this revelation almost painful to read. It seems almost unbelievable that such a treasure trove was burnt. Louie Burrows was such an interesting character, not only for her connection with D H Lawrence, but in her own right. She was ahead of her time, not only in her suffragist and feminist views but also in her teaching methods. Who knows what those letters contained? Love letters from D H Lawrence himself? But the boxes could have also contained letters from her suffragist/suffragette friends. They could have given such an insight into her character and life!

What is a puzzle is that when Louie died she left what were thought to be the complete collection of her letters from D H Lawrence in her will to be disposed of by the Executors with the wish that they be published. They were sold to Nottingham University, who published them in 1968 in the book 'Lawrence in Love'. A mystery indeed.

Submitted on: 2009-07-19 Submitted by: Kathryn Paterson Artefact ID: 296 Artefact URL: www.quornmuseum.com/display.php?id=296