26 April 2025
On April 26, the Rt. Hon. Sir Conor Burns delivered the Museum's 38th Enid and R. Crosby Kemper Lecture "World Peace, Free Trade, and Rules-Based Order." The lecture coincided with the induction of new Fellows into the Association of Churchill Fellows of Westminster College.
Born in Belfast in 1972 Sir Conor Burns attended St Columba's College in St Albans a school run by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, United States Province. He graduated with a degree in Modern History and Politics from the University of Southampton.
A previous Councillor in the City of Southampton, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West in 2010. He served on the Culture, Media and Sport Select and the Education Committees. He was a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Departments of Business and Energy, Northern Ireland, Treasury and the Foreign Office to Boris Johnson. He was appointed Minister for Trade Policy by Mr. Johnson. He also served as Minister of State for Northern Ireland.
Most recently. Sir Conor was the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to the United States for Trade and Investment. He served under UK Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who asked him to lead the state-level MOU program to bolster UK-US trade.
He was appointed to the Privy Council by Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2019. In 2023 Conor was appointed Knight Batchelor and knighted at an investiture by Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle.
His home is in Bournemouth, and he works from London and Dallas, Texas.
The Enid and R. Crosby Kemper Lectureship at America’s National Churchill at Westminster College was established in 1979 by a grant from the R. Crosby Kemper Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri. It is intended to provide for lectures by authorities on history, Winston Churchill and his legacy in today’s world.
“Leave the past to history especially as I propose to write that history myself.”
