John Hampden Burnham

Who was John Hampden Burnham?

John Hampden Burnham was a politician and lawyer. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Member of the Conservative Party in the election of 1911 to represent the riding of Peterborough West after being defeated in the election of 1908.

Between 1916 and 1918, Burnham served overseas as a captain of the 93rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was also the author of Canadians in the Imperial Naval and Military Service Abroad.

He was re-elected in the 1917 election as a Unionist. Burham quit the government party on July 15, 1920 to sit as an Independent Conservative in protest of Arthur Meighen's attempt to make the Unionist government which had been formed during the Conscription Crisis of 1917 as a coalition of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals into a permanent political party, called the National Liberal and Conservative Party. Several months later he resigned his seat in the House of Commons and ran for re-election as an Independent Conservative in a February 7, 1921 by-election in hopes of demonstrating that public opinion supported him.