Sir Cecil Dennistoun Burney, 3rd Baronet (8 January 1923 – 19 April 2002) was a British businessman and politician in Zambia (1959-1970), having emigrated in 1951 but returning to Britain in 1970.

Biography

Burney was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1923 to the British naval officer and politician

Dennistoun Burney Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, 2nd Baronet (28 December 1888 – 11 November 1968, in Bermuda) was an English aeronautical engineer, private inventor and Conservative Party politician.''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' Oxford: OUP. Ear ...

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

MP for Uxbridge) and his American wife Gladys. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and then joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

in 1942, serving as a radar officer in the

Arctic convoys The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys ...

. After the war he attended

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

and studied engineering, also rowing for the college. After leaving university, Burney moved to

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

to work for Anglo American in the

Nchanga Mines The Nchanga mines are a group of copper mining operations near the municipal town of Chingola in Zambia. Nchanga Open Pit Mine The Open Pits at Nchanga Mine are situated in a crescent shaped structure 11 km long around the municipal town ...

in 1948. In 1951 he established a car dealership named Northern Motors, and in 1957 he married Hazel Coleman, with whom he had two sons. Between 1956 and 1959 he was President of the Northern Rhodesia Motor Traders' Association. In the 1959 general elections, Burney contested the

Ndola Ndola is the third largest city in Zambia and third in terms of size and population, with a population of 475,194 (''2010 census provisional''), after the capital, Lusaka, and Kitwe, and the second largest in terms of infrastructure development aft ...

seat in the Legislative Council as the

United Federal Party The United Federal Party (UFP) was a political party in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. History The UFP was formed in November 1957 by a merger of the Federal Party, which had operated at the federal level, and the Southern Rhodesian ...

candidate, and was elected with 58% of the vote."Northern Rhodesian Election Results", ''East Africa and Rhodesia'', 2 April 1959, p913 He subsequently became deputy to UFP leader

John Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases, including ''Nati ...

.Sir Cecil Burney, Bt
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', 17 May 2002 The Ndola seat was abolished prior to the 1962 general elections and Burney successfully ran for re-election in the Luanshya–Kansenji seat. The 1964 general elections saw ten 'reserved roll' seats created for the European population, with Burney running for re-election in the recreated Ndola seat as a member of the new National Progressive Party. He was re-elected to the Legislative Council, which became the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

upon independence later in the year, and chaired the Public Accounts Committee. The National Progressive Party was dissolved in 1966, after which its former members sat as independents. He remained a member of the National Assembly until the 1968 elections, prior to which the reserved roll seats were abolished. Burney succeeded his father to the Burney baronetcy in 1968, and returned to England in 1970. He joined the Conservative Party and was president of the West Berkshire Conservative Association, but was told that he was too old to stand for Parliament. After giving up his chairmanship of Northern Motors in 1972, he became chair of the Hampton Trust property firm in 1975, later working with

Michael Ashcroft Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, (born 4 March 1946) is a British-Belizean businessman, pollster and politician. He is a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. Ashcroft founded Michael A. Ashcroft Associates in 1972 and is ...

. He was chairman of the Rhino Group software firm between 1988 and 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burney, Cecil Dennistoun 1923 births Businesspeople from London 2002 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Royal Navy officers of World War II Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom English male rowers 20th-century Zambian businesspeople Members of the Legislative Council of Northern Rhodesia Members of the National Assembly of Zambia United Federal Party politicians National Progressive Party (Zambia) politicians 20th-century English businesspeople