 He was the grandson of Leonard Burrows (Bishop of Sheffield) and Neville Lovett (Bishop of Salisbury) and son of Hedley Burrows (Dean of Hereford).He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge.He was made a deacon at Michaelmas 1954 (26 September), by Cyril Easthaugh, Bishop of Kensington, and ordained a priest the Michaelmas following (25 September 1955), by William Wand, Bishop of London — both times at St Paul's Cathedral.