Elizabeth Burgwin

Elizabeth Burgwin born Elizabeth Canham OBE (1850 – 1940) was a headteacher in London who founded the largest charity supplying free school meals in London. She took an interest in the care of children with learning disabilities.

Life Burgwin was born in 1850 to Miriam and Samuel Canham. Her father was a labourer on a farm. She was educated in London at Whitelands Training College's school until she began a five-year apprenticeship in Chelsea at St Luke's Parochial Girls' School in 1864. In 1870 she married Thomas William Burgwin who was a butcher and they had their only child. At the start of 1874 Burgwin became the head of a temporary school (created by the act) until she and the staff moved to the newly constructed Orange Street Girls' School in Southwark that same year. She got involved in welfare when she started to organise a drink and some bread for the malnourished children and this evolved into a meal during the winter which was funded by a small group. The fund they created became the largest charity supplying free school meals in London by 1900.

Burgwin went to study the care of children with learning disabilities in France, Denmark and Germany; in October 1891 the London School Board appointed her as the superintendent of schools for special instruction. In 1897 1,300 children were being educated in classes under her management. During the proceedings Ellen Pinsent from Birmingham referred to Burgwin as "having more experience of special schools than anyone else in the world.