Leonard Burrows attended Sheffield's Firth Park Grammar School before serving in the Eighth Army in North Africa and Italy, and as a prisoner of war in Poland. After returning to civilian life he completed an M.A. in English and French at Sheffield University, and held a Fellowship at Liverpool University from 1948 until 1949. He came to Perth, Western Australia, in 1949 to take up a position as a lecturer in English at the University of Western Australia. He taught there until 1986, latterly as an Associate Professor. Husband of Elizabeth P. Burrows (q.v.).