Right Reverend George Merrick LongPrint Page

The gates commemorate George Merrick Long who was born in Carisbrook and became the Lord Bishop of Newcastle. 

Long became a deacon on 28 May 1899 and a priest on 10 June 1900. In 1899 he was posted to the district of Foster in Gippsland. He later returned to Melbourne to become senior curate at Holy Trinity Church, Kew. There he became involved with the foundation of Trinity Grammar School, becoming its headmaster in 1904. Long served on several diocesan committees and was made a canon of St Paul`s Cathedral in 1910. In May 1911 he was elected bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst, and was consecrated on 30 November 1911 at St Andrew`s Cathedral in Sydney. For his services, Long was awarded a Lambeth degree of Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Long joined the First Australian Imperial Force on 16 November 1917 as an Anglican chaplain. He sailed for London in January 1918 and was posted to the Australian Reinforcement Camp in France in April 1918. There he was approached by Major General Brudenell White to head the AIF's education project. Long accepted the post of Director of Education, AIF on 10 May 1918 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 1 June 1918.

Long established himself in London, and drew up a scheme for professional, general and technical training to be conducted by teaching within the AIF and by sending men out to universities, schools and businesses. When the war ended on 11 November 1918, Long was forced to put the education scheme into full effect earlier than expected. He was promoted to colonel and then temporary brigadier general on 1 January 1919. In March, with the scheme fully underway, Long's health began to suffer, and in April he handed over control to Major General McNicoll. 

In July 1919, Long returned to his diocese, where he continued his involvement with education. He restarted All Sanits College in Bathurst on a new site, and opened the Marsden School for Girls at Kelso. Long was grand chaplain of the United Grand Lodge from 1923 to 1926. He drafted a new constitution for the Church of England in Australia, making it independent of the church in Britain, and advocated the White Australia Policy. Long was elected Bishop of Newcastle in December 1927 and was enthroned on 1 May 1928. Long went to England in March 1930 to attend the Lambeth Conference in London. There he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died on 9 July 1930.

Note: On October 2015 St Paul’s Carisbrook was deconsecrated as a place of worship, and then two weeks later put up for sale (selling in December 2016). It had been an Anglican church for 149 years, serving the Carisbrook community well.

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