Burges was born in
Bloomsbury, London, on 1 July 1873 and educated at
Winchester College. He was commissioned on 21 October 1893 as a
second lieutenant into the
Gloucestershire Regiment, and was promoted to
lieutenant on 8 July 1897. Following the outbreak of the
Second Boer War in late 1899, Burges was with the 2nd battalion of his regiment as they were sent to South Africa in January 1900. He participated in the
Relief of Kimberley,
operations in the Orange Free State, actions at
Poplar Grove,
Driefontein, Vet River, Zand River, the
operations in the Transvaal, Rhenoster Kop, operations in
Orange River Colony and in
Cape Colony. For his service in the war, he received the
Queen's South Africa Medal with four clasps, and the
King's South Africa Medal with two clasps. At the end of the war Burges returned to
Southampton on the SS
Orcana, arriving in November 1902. Burges was promoted to
captain on 25 October 1903. From 1908 to 1913 he was adjutant of the
Punjab Volunteer Rifles. At the start of
World War I he was with the 2nd Battalion,
Gloucestershire Regiment with which he served at the
Second Battle of Ypres where he was wounded and
Mentioned in dispatches. After recovering from his wound he was appointed Temporary
Lieutenant-Colonel to command the
10th (Service) Battalion,
East Yorkshire Regiment (the '
Hull Commercials') on 11 November 1915. The battalion had just arrived at
Fovant on
Salisbury Plain to undergo intensive battle training with
31st Division before embarking for service overseas. It served in
Egypt, guarding the
Suez Canal from December to February 1916, when it was transferred to the
British Expeditionary Force on the
Western Front. It is alleged that Lt-Col Burges was removed from his command the day before the battle for refusing to risk any more men after two failed attempts to recover the body of an officer (a son of a well-known politician) from
No man's land during the bombardment. Burges left 10th Bn East Yorks on 30 June to become an instructor at the Senior Officers' School. In September 1917 he took command of the 7th Bn
South Wales Borderers at
Salonika, ==VC award==