Bury was born and raised in Clontibret, County Monaghan, where his father was Rector of

the Anglican Church of Ireland. He was educated first by his parents and then at Foyle
College in Derry and Trinity College in Dublin, where he graduated in 1882 and was made a
fellow in 1885, at the age of 24. In 1893 he gained a chair in Modern History at Trinity College,
which he held for nine years. In 1898 he was appointed Regius Professor of Greek, also at Trinity,
a post he held simultaneously with his history professorship.[1]In 1902 he became Regius
Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University.
At Cambridge, Bury became mentor to the medievalist Sir Steven Runciman, who later
commented that he had been Bury's "first, and only, student." At first the reclusive Bury tried to
brush him off; then, when Runciman mentioned that he could read Russian, Bury gave him a
stack of Bulgarian articles to edit, and so their relationship began. Bury was the author of the first
truly authoritative biography of Saint Patrick (1905).
Bury remained at Cambridge until his death at the age of 65 in Rome. He is buried in
the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.
He received the honorary Doctor of Laws (DLL) from the University of Glasgow in June 1901.[2]