Frank Leslie Burrows, 1920 - 1983

by Brian Stevenson
last updated October, 2025

F.L. Burrows lived in Auckland, New Zealand, where he worked as a chemist with a pharmaceutical business. He became a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society in 1951. His well-made slides encompass a wide variety of specimens (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Microscope slides by Frank L. Burrows, ca, 1950s-1970s. From the author’s collection or adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from an internet auction site.

Figure 2. Detail of a bee’s leg, prepared by F.L. Burrows (Figure 1). Photographed with a C-mounted digital SLR camera, 3.4x objective lens, and crossed polarizing filters on a Leitz Ortholux II microscope.

Frank Leslie Burrows was born during the autumn of 1920 in Auckland, son of John Leslie and Jessie Lois Aldridge Burrows.

Government records list him as working as a “technician” or “chemist” throughout most of his life. Burrow’s entry in the 1952 RMS list of Fellows gave his contact address as Kolynos (N.Z.), a toothpaste manufacturer. That he could receive personal mail at work implies that Burrows was a senior employee. He was listed as “plant manager” during the 1970s.

Frank married Joan Angela Van Lume McLeod in the late 1940s. Their first daughter was born in May, 1948.

He joined the Royal Microscopical Society in 1951. Presumably, he was a corresponding Fellow.

Frank Burrows died on November 21, 1983, in Auckland.

Resources

Burrows Family Tree (accessed October, 2025) https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/171091690/person/282221775616/facts

Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society (1951) New Fellows, page 393

New Zealand Birth Index (accessed October, 2025) Frank Leslie Burrows, accessed through ancestry.com

New Zealand Electoral Rolls, accessed through ancestry.com