Gavin Long
Encyclopedia
Gavin Merrick Long OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (31 May 1901 – 10 October 1968) was an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and military historian
Military history
Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships....

. He was the general editor of the Australia in the War of 1939–1945 and the author of three of the 22 volumes in the series.

Gavin Long was born in Foster, Victoria
Foster, Victoria
Foster is a dairying and grazing town south-east of Melbourne on the South Gippsland Highway in Victoria, Australia. It is about north of the Gippsland coastline which includes Shallow Inlet, Corner Inlet, Waratah Bay, Yanakie and Wilsons Promontory...

, the eldest of six children of George Merrick Long
George Merrick Long
George Merrick Long CBE was an Anglican bishop who had previously served as a brigadier general in the Australian Army in World War I. He was also involved in the establishment of Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne where he also became headmaster...

, a clergyman.
He was educated at Trinity Grammar School where his father was headmaster, and All Saints College, Bathurst
All Saints College, Bathurst
All Saints' College is an independent, co-educational Christian college in the Anglican tradition. Located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, the college caters for day students from Transition to Year 12 and boarders from Years 7 to 12....

.

He completed a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...

 in 1922 and worked as a teacher in 1922 and 1923. After working as a jackeroo in 1924 Long travelled to England in 1925 so that he could marry Mary Jocelyn Britten. During his time in England he worked at Australia House and was married on 5 September 1925. Two weeks after their marriage Long and his wife returned to Australia.

Journalist

After his return to Australia, Long worked as a journalist and moved between several newspapers. In 1930 he was made a senior reporter at the Melbourne Argus
The Argus (Australia)
The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne established in 1846 and closed in 1957. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949...

 but was later reduced in rank due to the impact of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 on the paper. He was appointed a sub-editor at the Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...

 in July 1931 and held this job until he was posted to the Herald's London office in 1938.

After the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Long was a correspondent to the British Expeditionary Force
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
The British Expeditionary Force was the British force in Europe from 1939–1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force....

 in France and was evacuated from Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....

 in May 1940. In November 1940, he was sent to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 where he reported on the Australian 6th Division during its campaigns in North Africa and Greece. Long was recalled to Australia in mid-1941 where he continued writing on defence matters.

Military historian

In March 1943 Gavin Long was appointed general editor of the Australia in the War of 1939–1945, a 22-volume official history of Australia's involvement in World War II, on the recommendation of C.E.W. Bean
Charles Bean
Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean , usually identified as C.E.W. Bean, was an Australian schoolmaster, judge's associate, barrister journalist, war correspondent and historian....

, the editor of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. Based at the Australian War Memorial
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia...

 in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, he spent the remainder of the war planning the series and visiting forward areas to interview members of the Australian military.

After the war Long played a key role in the official history project. As well as providing guidance to the other authors, he wrote three of the volumes in the series (To Benghazi (published 1952), Greece, Crete and Syria (1953) and The Final Campaigns (1963). He retired as general editor in 1963 as the project was nearing completion and he did not believe that a full-time editor was required. Long's books were well received by reviewers and his close involvement with the other authors gave the series a unity of purpose and method. Long was awarded the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 in 1953 for his services as editor of the official history. In 1956 he was awarded the Greek Gold Cross of the Royal Order of the Phoenix.

Gavin Long continued to write after his retirement from the official history project. He was a research fellow with the Australian Dictionary of Biography
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is a national, co-operative enterprise, founded and maintained by the Australian National University to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's history....

, was part of the team which produced the Australian Government's Style Guide and contributed over 90 articles to The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times newspaper was founded in 1926 in Canberra, Australia by Arthur Shakespeare.It was the second paper to be printed in the city, the first being The Federal Capital Pioneer. The paper was sold to the Fairfax group in the 1960s by Arthur Shakespeare on the condition that it continue...

. He also wrote two further military history books, MacArthur as Military Commander (published in 1969) and The Six Years War (1973), which was a concise summary of Australia's involvement in World War II. The Six Years War was written well before it was published but its publication was delayed while the final volumes in the official history series were completed.

Gavin Long died of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

 on 10 October 1968 at his home in Deakin, ACT
Deakin, Australian Capital Territory
Deakin is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Deakin is named after Alfred Deakin, second prime minister of Australia...

and was cremated.
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