HUNTER HEROES - Eva Burrows

Few men are called to leadership on the world stage, even fewer women. Eva Burrows was an exception.

A child of the Great Depression 

On 15 September 1929, Eva, the eighth of nine children, was born to Robert and Ella Burrows, Corps Officers in the Australia Eastern Territory. Her strident cries announced her arrival into the family. In turn, the midwife disrupted the adjacent early-morning prayer meeting to fetch her father. His response to the news was, in effect, “First things come first!” However, as soon as possible, he hurried over to the officers’ quarters, took the child in his arms and consecrated the little girl to the glory of God and the salvation of the world.

That prayer of dedication set in motion a train of God-blessed events that was to see the child growing to maturity and making her own life-consecration that would give access to a global platform, a cross-cultural ministry, and international leadership of a worldwide movement. This is the story of that remarkable woman, who committed her heart and life to the glory of God and the salvation of the world. 

Times were hard. The Depression had bitten into the meagre resources of the family as they sought to minister to others, bringing hope, comfort, food and clothing to the deprived. At times, the home larder was bare, but a happy home does not focus on a deprivation. The Corps community sensed their needs and often supplied some small bounty for them. The family, though physically cramped, found hearty enjoyment in their associations at home and at the Army.

“Educated” rebellion

The Second World War impacted badly upon the family, with the older brothers enlisting. The nurturing years in the “hold” of the family were almost at an end, and Eva, reaching her teen years, began to stretch her wings. School had opened to her new dimensions. Her perceptive and intelligent mind received its workouts in the achieving of academic excellence. Eva had caught the taste of early success and her world began to revolve around personal achievement. Becoming Head Girl brought new emphasis to this. Leadership on a far wider scale, however, would have been unimaginable in those days. 

University was a new door to be opened. The Salvation Army was relegated to the background of her ever-widening interests. Her uniform was cast aside. Personal plans for her career path were firming up as her commitment to Christ waned.

A new awakening

The event which Eva describes as “the most crucial moment in my life” occurred when she was invited to attend a Christian Union bible study. This study caused Eva to begin a self-analysis that would lead her back into The Salvation Army, and return to the Lord that which had already been His. She stated, “It was then … that I fully realised that my calling was a total commitment to serve God in the Salvation Army.”

The world beckons

When Eva embarked on her journey to the International Youth Congress, held in London in September 1950, the excited young woman could not know that that day would usher in the beginning of her remarkable life-pilgrimage as a Salvation Army officer.

The intermingling of the worldwide Army – with its colourful uniforms, costumes, and rhythms, underscored with the vibrant testimonies and commitments to Christ – was indeed a sight to behold. Already an officer-candidate, Eva’s first view of The Salvation Army on a world scale would have done much to affirm her resolve to follow the Lord’s leadings. Her commitment to the Lord was renewed during the Congress Sunday meetings.

Of immense surprise to Eva was the suggestion made by Commissioner John Bladin (then principal of the International Training College) that, in order to fulfil her calling through the avenue of teaching in Africa, she should train to become an officer in London before undertaking postgraduate work at London University. Thus it was that Eva entered into training in 1950.

A highlight of training for Eva was the Spiritual Days led by General Albert Orsborn. These wonderful occasions continue to hold a special place in her treasury of memories. Firm friendships were forged during training. These were to deepen later on the African continent and they have remained integral to Eva’s associations through, and beyond, active service.

The newly-commissioned officer was appointed to assist at Portsmouth Citadel but, before the end of the year, she left to commence her studies at London University. This experience did much to fit her for the rigours and delights of Africa. 

The call to Africa

Late in 1952, Eva stepped on to African soil. She had been appointed to the Howard Institute (a Salvation Army complex housing a primary school, hospital, and training college), situated in Southern Rhodesia.[1] Eva was welcomed to the school by the principal, Captain Caughey Gauntlet – the man who, after her election as General, became her first Chief of Staff. From the beginning, they had the good rapport of mission-oriented personnel.

The exuberant nature of the African people seeped deeply into Eva’s soul. In her inimitable way, she set about developing the school’s syllabus to bring into sharper focus the students’ understanding of the Christian’s spiritual life. Eva grieved the school’s lack of adequate facilities, which precluded the enrolment of many children.

Eva found life in Africa to be a constant source of joy. She entered wholeheartedly into the lives of the people. It was a particular pleasure for her to sit with the Africans at their village campfires, entering into their conversations and opening her mind and heart to their fascinating culture. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Eva was also the local Corps Officer. In time, she was appointed vice-principal at Howard.

An African Salvationist reported that, “owing to her love and unceasing efforts to improve the spiritual and educational life of our people, she was able to transcend the barriers of racial distrust and hatred that then existed in Rhodesia”.

On New Year’s Day, 1967, Eva was appointed principal of the Teacher Training Centre at the Usher Institute. Now the motivator rather than the suggestion-maker, Eva was able to formulate, test, and refine her own ideas in her new leadership role. 

So ensconced in their culture did Eva become that Africans observed that she was truly at one with them, sharing in their pleasures and their pain. This affinity was so pronounced that an African once said to her, “If I thought my prayer would be answered, I would pray for you to be black.”

Under her astute leadership, the Usher Institute was expanded, the curriculum enlarged, and the academic prowess of the students heightened. It would be with a saddened heart that Eva Burrows would depart “her” people!

An open gateway to the world

Eva was appointed as a delegate to the International College for Officers (ICO) in London in the summer of 1967. She was observed there by Army leaders as having great potential for future leadership in more demanding roles. In the days that followed, appointments were planned to provide her with the widest possible experience in order to fit her for larger responsibilities. It was at the ICO that Eva’s vision enlarged into a truly global outlook.

Thus it was, in 1969, after seventeen years’ service in Africa, that Eva was appointed to the ICO as vice-principal. Eva likened the experience of parting from “her people” to a bereavement.

Now the door was truly open on the world! Eva associated with officers from every country and clime. She absorbed stories of plenty and penury, of caring and sharing, by officers from the diverse cultures represented at the college. She found herself truly enriched by these encounters. Within a few years, Eva was promoted to the position of principal, with the rank of colonel. A strategic assignment during this period was the International Training Principals’ Conference in 1974. This conference engendered significant changes in methods of training cadets around the world.

I met Colonel Eva Burrows when I was appointed as a delegate to the ICO in 1974, during her tenure as principal. Colonel Henry Gariepy quotes me in his biography, General of God’s Army. “Colonel Eva Burrows knows how to open the shutters on parochial minds. Her ability to be at one with East and West, to encourage a sense of ‘world family’, was unforgettable. Her broad understanding of national traits and cultures enabled the weaving of the fabric of our experience at ICO to be strong and colourful.”[2]

A change of gears 

The 1975 appointment as leader of the Women’s Social Services in Great Britain and Ireland came as a shock to Eva. Nonetheless, she set about acquiring a rapid, comprehensive knowledge of this new “world” of endeavour. Early in this new role, the officers under her command developed a warm response to her innovative ideas.

Eva learned to understand the clients by going out from her office into the “field” in order to fully appreciate the needs of the destitute, the battered, the deprived and despairing. It was in the streets and in the shelters that she honed her skills in communicating with the needy. There was born in her an ever-deepening compassion for the disenfranchised. Of that time, Eva said, “In that post I got a feeling for the lost and lonely.”[3] Those deeper understandings have never left her and, if anything, are still more evident today!

Territorial leadership

Colonel Eva Burrows was appointed as territorial commander to Sri Lanka in January 1977. Beauty and brutality stood side by side on that magnificent tropical island. The poverty, ethnic violence, political turmoil, and daily struggles of the people presented a great challenge to the new territorial leader. The diversity of religious affiliation added to the constant burdens of office. However, the Army is respected and its work appreciated. Working in such an environment caused Eva to deepen her already strong reliance upon God and her short years in that country further fitted her for the tasks to come.

Following her departure from Sri Lanka, a visiting officer discovered an article in the daily newspaper lauding Eva for the quality of her leadership and the ways in which Sri Lanka as a whole had benefited from her work.

Blessings and bagpipes

From the enervating heat of Sri Lanka to the iciness of the Scottish winter in November 1980; Eva – now a commissioner – found herself acclimatising to a vastly different scene of service.

Just two months after taking this post, she suffered a heart attack. A long convalescence followed, but Eva took up her “tools” again two months later. 

Eva, who had found herself “at home” in Africa, in Britain and in Sri Lanka, settled down to the skirl of the bagpipes. She left a lasting impression upon the Scots, who grew to love her dearly.

By this time, I had taken on the role of Eva’s assistant. Upon observing her rapport with the homeless of Glasgow, I stated: “As good, as competent as she is behind the office desk, so strategically handling the affairs of the Army, here is where her true qualities are to be found – among the people, and the people most in need. Here is where Christ-likeness really shows … in a quiet corner of human need.”[4] 

Homeground

It was inevitable! Eva, who had never served in her home territory, now returned to Australia. However, it was the sister territory – with headquarters in Melbourne – that welcomed her “home” on 1 October 1982. 

Now leader of one of the largest territories in the Army, Eva was immediately at home and at the helm. Her leadership skills had been refined and strengthened, opening the way for significant initiatives to come to fruition. Among these was the project “Employment 2000”, geared to combat unemployment. Eva’s appeal at Parliament House, Canberra, during a national forum on taxation, helped to bring about a modification of government intention.

Eva set about introducing “Church growth” into the territory. She was “never backward in coming forward” to champion the cause of those wronged by society. Also, during her tenure of office, the annual congresses took on a new lease of life, energising all to become more effective in witness and work.

The world stage

It was from the Australia Southern Territory that Eva travelled to London to attend the High Council set down for April 1986. At the completion of the council, it was Eva who emerged from the sacred room as the thirteenth General of The Salvation Army. Eva was now to become a citizen of the world.

The desk, the direction and the diversity

General Eva Burrows set out her Agenda for the Future promptly. The agenda drew attention to her priorities in leadership: to emphasise the supremacy of evangelism; to call The Salvation Army to spiritual renewal; to re-affirm our basic stance on the authority and validity of the Scriptures; to emphasise the Christian ethic; to support efforts for peace in the world; to re-affirm the importance of our young people. A reflection of the years of her leadership makes it abundantly clear how remarkably this six-point plan was fulfilled by word, deed, and demeanour.

Eva has said on numerous occasions that her modus operandi is “Consensus in the Spirit”. Eva is a listener as well as a director. She is able to take ideas on board, hone them as a workable “tool”, support them, and applaud them. She sought to gauge the mind of the people, to encourage them in the Faith, and provide guidelines by example for walking and working “in the Spirit”.

The Iron Curtain is rent!

With the rise of communism, the Army had been proscribed from the USSR in 1923. Now, however, Eva was to oversee the return.

With commendable acumen, Eva requested that her Chief of Staff, retired Commissioner Caughey Gauntlet, co-ordinate the Army’s return to Central and Eastern Europe. He was born in Czechoslovakia, was fluent in French and German, and had firsthand knowledge of the region. Later, Eva entered Russia to re-open the Army’s work in St Petersburg, then Moscow.

That story is too large, too grand, to report in detail here, but it was certainly a soul-stirring endeavour. Miracles of grace occurred at frequent intervals and God’s intervention was evident. How moving to associate the 1993 return to Russia with the promise of God, given through Jeremiah (29:10–13) that God would visit His people after seventy years’ exile!

Concerning Eva’s marching into new arenas with Salvation Army–style evangelism, I quote Gariepy: “The sun never sets on the Army tricolour … the advance and re-opening of these communistic bloc countries was a high solstice of General Burrows’s term. With vision and vigour she advanced the Army into new frontiers ... Under Burrows, the Army banners were marching forward at a brisker pace and the cross was replacing the hammer and sickle.”[5] 

The seven-year general

As General, Eva travelled over a million miles to centres and remote villages around the world. The honoured and the humble each saw the sparkle of genuine interest and concern, for Eva was able to, proverbially, “walk with kings nor lose the common touch”. Kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers were included in a wide range of state visits; but on other occasions, Eva could be found in conversation with the homeless on the inner city streets of London, or among villagers in the appalling poverty of Africa. No wonder this amazing woman has been dubbed “The People’s General”.

A “world” at one

The International Congress held in London in 1990 became a “Mecca” for Salvationists around the world, and Eva welcomed the delegates with stirring words: “We come seeking God’s will for the future. God is challenging our Army today … ” Eva was never slow to launch initiatives. She was a strategist, an activist, and an enthusiast. In her unique role, she was able to sow the seeds of enterprise … water, nurture, and harvest them. She is a warrior for the Lord, a “Salvation soldier” of the first order. 

Eva has taken on causes such as human rights, apartheid, the family, ecumenism, poverty, and unemployment, and raised these issues in the presence of people in power, who have listened and been prompted to alter or modify proposed legislation.

By now, the allotted time of Eva’s appointment as General was running out. However, a secret postal ballot of international leaders determined, by an overwhelming majority vote, that her tenure of office be extended by two years.

Eva put forward a list of seven priorities for this final period of her service. There would be: an international conference of leaders; emphasis on evangelism; renewal and growth; new IHQ structure to become operational; the stability of Central and Eastern Europe to be ensured; the strengthening of internationalism; emphasis on the work among youth; and development of indigenous leadership. These priorities in large measure were achieved.

The golden “afternoon”

On 8 July 1993 Eva retired from active service, a term hardly synonymous with the many aspects of “continuing service” undertaken since that date – including directorship of the International Bible Society.

Eva once said to me that all she would like recorded of her was that “she pleased God”. I think that, in looking upon His “Ambassador to the World” (in Salvation Army drapery), the Lord is “blessed” with great joy. Thus far, and time is getting on into the late “afternoon”, Eva continues to please her Lord.

As I write, in February 2008 – fifteen years after her retirement – little has changed*. Though Eva no longer sits in the “top chair” at International Headquarters, her sleeves are still well and truly rolled up. Eva is in the midst of a soul-satisfying ministry at “Six-One-Four Corps” (i.e., Isaiah 61:4) in the heart of Melbourne.

While Eva still travels internationally from time to time to attend wide-ranging events, her main focus is now on the marginalised and homeless. She is the recruiting sergeant at “Six-One-Four” and finds great joy in the numbers who are becoming adherents and soldiers of this remarkable Corps that continues to have great impact on inner-city life.

Quotes are drawn from General of God’s Army by Henry Gariepy, and from conversations with General Eva Burrows (Rtd).

* Eva Burrows passed away on 20 March 2015. 

by Lucille Turfrey