Burge was Headmaster of Repton School from 1900 to 1901[8] and then of Winchester from 1901 to 1911,[9] before his elevation to the episcopate as Bishop of Southwark in 1911.[10] It was a surprise appointment because Burge had had no parochial experience and his health was fragile, and the Southwark diocese was regarded as very demanding for a diocesan Bishop.[11]
During the First World War, Burge emphasised the importance of Christian principles underpinning British involvement. ‘The thing for which England is to stand to her children and before the bar of history is not simply political liberty and justice and constitutional government and international conscience, but the ‘Mind of Christ’ informing the life of her people, and giving political and moral ideals their true sanction. For that Force in the world, we are to stand or not stand at all’.[12]
In 1917, he wrote ‘We shall not do much to promote the Great Cause of lofty principles and high ideals in the struggle with materialism, if in any way we encourage the belief that making shells or growing potatoes is national service while the ministrations of the Church and promoting moral welfare are not’.[13]
