Right Reverend Samuel ThorntonPrint Page

The brass plaque commemorates the Right Reverend Samuel Thornton who was the first Bishop of Ballarat. 

On 1 May 1875 at Westminster Abbey, Thornton was consecrated first bishop of Ballarat. He arrived in Melbourne with his wife on 5 August in the Lord Warden and on the 11th was installed in Christ Church Pro-Cathedral, Ballarat, at a service conducted by Archdeacon Theodore Carlos Stretch. In December 1876 he was admitted M.A. (ad eund.) at the University of Melbourne. With 'conspicuous energy' and great organizing capacity, he tackled the task of bringing orderly administration to a diocese that extended to Mildura and the South Australian border.

He attracted men of high calibre, one of whom described him as 'probably the best scholar on the Australian Episcopal Bench of his day'. He was a brilliant extempore preacher and speaker. In 1900 Thornton resigned and returned to England via South Africa in July; he became assistant bishop of Manchester and vicar of Blackburn, retiring from active ministry in 1910. He died on 27 November 1917 in London. 

The memorial tablet to the memory of the late Bishop Thornton, the first Anglican Bishop of Ballarat, was unveiled in Christ Church Cathedral yesterday afternoon in the presence of a large congregation. The memorial brass was beautifully executed by Mr Barbery (of Ballarat), to the design of Mr W. H. Chandler, and at the cost of the diocese. The service was conducted by the Dean of Ballarat, the Very Rev. Julius Lewis, who was assisted by the Ven. Archdeacon Tucker and the Rev. Canon Davies. Bishop Maxwell-Gumbleton unveiled and dedicated the tablet.
The Ballarat Star (Vic), 22 July 1918.

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