Eva Burrows

Eva Evelyn Burrows, AC, OF (15 September 1929 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian Salvation Army Officer who was, from 1986 to 1993, the 13th General of the Salvation Army. She served as an Officer of the Salvation Army from 1951 to her retirement in 1993. In 1993, Henry Gariepy released her biography, General of God's Army: the Authorized Biography of General Eva Burrows.

Early life
Burrows was born on 15 September 1929 in Newcastle. Her parents, Robert John Guthrie Burrows and Ella Maria Watson Burrows, were both Salvation Army Officers. The couple had nine children: Dorothy, Joyce, Beverly, Walter, Robert, Bramwell, Elizabeth, Eva and Margaret. With her parents' itinerant life-style, Burrows' primary schooling was interrupted, but she completed her secondary education at Brisbane State High School, where she was selected as a prefect and Head Girl. From the age of seventeen, Burrows attended the University of Queensland and received her Bachelor of Arts in May 1950 with majors in English and History.

Salvation Army
In 1950, Burrows entered The Salvation Army's International Training College in London. She was commissioned as a Salvation Army Officer in 1951. After studying at London University to be a teacher, she served at the Howard Institute in Rhodesia from 1952 to 1967, was Principal of the Usher Institute from 1966 to 1970, and served at the International College for Officers, at The Cedars, Sydenham Hill London, from 1970 to 1975, first as Assistant Principal, then as Principal.

Burrows became the leader of the Salvation Army's Social Services for Women in Great Britain in 1975, and leader of the Salvation Army's work in Sri Lanka in 1977. In 1980, she became leader of the Salvation Army's work in Scotland, followed in 1982 as leader of the Salvation Army's work in the Australian Southern Territory. In 1986, she was elected General of the Salvation Army by the slimmest margin in the history of the High Council (22 to 24 on the fourth ballot, a margin of one person's vote). In 1986, at 56, Burrows became the organization’s youngest commander. Burrows was the only woman candidate of seven and was elected by the army’s high council to replace the retiring General Jarl Wahlström. During her seven years as the leader of the Salvation Army, she proved highly effective, directing operations in some 90 countries and reawakening the Army’s founding spirit of evangelism by leading it back into Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. At the end of her term, she was extended a further two years because of her record and achievements.

Burrows completed a ten-year post on the Board of the International Bible Society (in 2005), and was the international Champion of the Be A Hero campaign, as well as sitting on the Board of Reference of The Salvation Army War College. She wrote A Field For Exploits: Training Leaders For The Salvation Army.

Death
Burrows died aged 85 on 20 March 2015 at the Coppin Centre in Melbourne, Victoria.

Honours
In the Australia Day Honours of 1986, Burrows was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) with the citation "In recognition of service to the temporal and spiritual welfare of the community and to social justice as the world leader of the Salvation Army". In 1994 it was upgraded to Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

In 1988, sBurrows became an Honorary Doctor of Liberal Arts at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, and was awarded an Honorary LLD from Asbury University in the USA in 1988. In December 1993, she received an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from her alma mater, the University of Queensland.

On 1 January 2001, Burrows received a Centenary Medal "[f]or service to the Australian community". In the same year she was also inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

Burrows was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in 2012.

On Friday 3 July 2015 (AEST), three months after her death, Burrows was awarded the highest honour of the Salvation Army posthumously, the "Order of the Founder" in a ceremony at Boundless, in London which celebrated 150 years of the Salvation Army. The award was received by Commissioner Tidd on behalf of the Burrows family.