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Herbert Burrows (12 June 1845 – 14 December 1922) was a British socialist activist.
From 1872, Burrows studied briefly as a non-collegiate student at the University of Cambridge, but did not take a degree. He worked as a civil servant for the Inland Revenue, including in Norwich, Barnet, Blackburn, and Chatham, a career that lasted until his retirement in 1907.
Burrows supported the Federation's commitment to socialism in 1884, when it was renamed the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). Often writing under the pseudonym C.V., he contributed articles to its newspaper, Justice. He represented the group on the executive of the Law and Liberty League.
With Annie Besant—whom he had met through his connection with Bradlaugh and the National Secular Society—Burrows was a key organiser of the Bryant & May matchgirls' strike of 1888, and afterwards became the treasurer of the Union of Women Matchmakers, then the largest women's trade union in England. Burrows actively promoted unionisation among workers, and the success of the matchgirls' strike helped to galvanise the trade union movement. He maintained an active role in the Women's Trade Union League and the Women's Industrial Council until 1917.
Burrows also became a prominent member of South Place Ethical Society,
the Rainbow Circle,Burrows stood for Parliament unsuccessfully in the 1908 Haggerston by-election, and again in Haggerston in 1910. He resigned from the SDF (then the Social Democratic Party) in 1911.
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