 He was one of twelve children, but after his father was injured in an accident, he became the main wage earner for his family.The mines in Yarlside were flooded in 1891, and Burns moved to Hemsworth in Yorkshire to find work at the South Kirkby Colliery.Later in the year, he migrated to the United States, working at copper, silver and gold mines from Montana to Arizona, but he returned to Hemsworth in 1895, and joined the Yorkshire Miners' Association (YMA).