George Ambrose Burton

George Ambrose Burton, Fifth Bishop of Clifton, 1902 to 1931

The future Bishop was born at Kingston-on-Hull on 28 April 1852. After education at Ratcliffe College, he taught at there until 1884. Then, at the age of 32, he went to Rome to study at the Venerable English College. He was ordained at St John Lateran in 1890 and in the same year gained his doctorate. He returned to England for two years serving as a curate at St Mary's Cathedral, Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was then appointed to the church of St Bede in South Shields, where he served, at first as a curate and later as parish priest, until 1902, when he was appointed Bishop of Clifton. He was consecrated at the Pro-Cathedral on 1 May 1902.

The finances of Prior Park College, which the diocese had taken over from the Christian Brothers in 1903, soon began to cause the Bishop serious problems and he had no alternative but to close the College again at Easter 1904. Following the closure of the college where the Bishop had been living, Bishop Burton took the present residence of the Bishops of Clifton, St Ambrose, in Leigh Woods, Bristol.

The outbreak of war in 1914 brought many problems for the diocese and its Bishop. The influx of Belgian refugees and the vast army camps established around Salisbury Plain caused serious difficulties in the provision of chaplains and Mass centres. But the Bishop's pastoral letters of the war years were particularly inspiring and were often quoted in the local press.

After the Armistice, there were further troubles for the Bishop. The large numbers of Irish Catholics in the diocese seemed divided on the political difficulties of that country. Unemployment, too, was a problem and the Bishop earned the admiration of many by addressing mass meetings of the unemployed in Bristol.

The Bishop took great pleasure in the church building programme which took place around the diocese in the 1920's. In addition, he improved the Pro-Cathedral by installing the new High Altar and several new stained-glass windows. Towards the end of the decade the Bishop's health began to fail and his secretary, Monsignor (later Bishop) Lee, deputised for him at many ceremonies during his last years. Bishop Burton died on the evening of Sunday 8 February 1931.