Bishop George Merrick Long Print Page

The stained glass window in the Bishop's Chapel commemorates Bishop George Merrick Long who was Bishop of Newcastle from 1928-1930.

In December 1927 Long was elected bishop of Newcastle and enthroned on 1 May 1928. He had a sensitive knowledge of economic and industrial issues and was popular with the mining unions on the Newcastle coalfields. He had retained his connexion with the Australian Military Forces where he was chaplain and honorary captain in World War 1 and in 1929 was appointed chaplain-general.

In March 1930 he sailed for England to attend the Lambeth Conference in London, but suffered a cerebral haemorrhage after its opening session and died on 9 July in St Thomas's Hospital. His requiem was celebrated by Archbishop Cosmo Lang before 300 bishops, and his ashes were brought back to New South Wales and placed in All Saints Cathedral, Bathurst. St Christopher's chapel in Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle, is his memorial, and a window of its Tyrrell chapel contains his portrait.

A window for Newcastle Cathedral as a memorial to the late Bishop Long, and containing the likeness of the Bishop, is being executed in Brisbane under the supervision of Mr. William Bustard. The Dean of Newcastle, Very Rev. W. H. Johnson, has received the following report on it from Canon Stevenson and Rev. R. E. Sutton—"We have just inspected the Bishop Long window, and think it is splendid. The likeness is amazingly good, and is the best likeness of any of your Bishop windows. In fact it is the best we have seen in glass of anyone. We like the design of the window as a whole, too."
Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW), 
7 December 1932 .

NEWCASTLE, Monday.  A window in the Bishops' Chapel of Newcastle Cathedral to the memory of George Merrick Long, Church of England Bishop of Newcastle till his death in 1930, and one time Bishop of Bathurst, was dedicated by the present Bishop of Newcastle (Right Rev P De Witt Batty) at the synod service of the diocese of Newcastle this evening. Bishop Batty was assisted by the Archdeacon of Newcastle (Ven H D Wood), the Dean of Newcastle (Very Rev W. H Johnson), and other clergy of the diocese. The Archbishop of Brisbane and Acting Primate of Australia (Most Rev Dr Sharp), who preached the sermon, said that for those who had been present on the third day of the Lambeth Conference of 1930 and had heard the Archbishop of Canterbury announce that George Merrick Long, Bishop of Newcastle, had passed to his rest, the experience was unforgettable. He could still hear the murmur that came spontaneously and quite audibly from the lips of the 300 bishops assembled there. It was not only the Austialian bishops who knew that a leader had been lost to the Australian Church, the whole conference knew it. Bishop Long was a great preacher, a clear thinker, a man of distinguished ability and character, and quite fearless in trying to achieve that which he thought best for the Church. All the bishops of Lambeth seemed to know that he had nearly brought to its conclusion a very great constitutional work for the Australian Church.
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 21 March 1933. 

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