Australian journalist and historian
Gavin Merrick Long
OBE
(31 May 1901 ? 10 October 1968) was an Australian journalist and
military historian
. He was the general editor of the
official history
series
Australia in the War of 1939?1945
and the author of three of its 22 volumes.
Early life
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Gavin Long was born in
Foster, Victoria
, the eldest of six children of
George Merrick Long
, a clergyman. He was educated at
Trinity Grammar School
where his father was headmaster, and
All Saints College, Bathurst
.
[1]
Long completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the
University of Sydney
in 1922 and taught at
The King's School, Parramatta
in 1922 and 1923.
[1]
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
[
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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
but was later reduced in rank due to the impact of the
Great Depression
on the paper. He was appointed a sub-editor at
The Sydney Morning Herald
in July 1931 and held this job until he was posted to the
Herald'
s London office in 1938.
After the outbreak of the
Second World War
, Long was a correspondent to the
British Expeditionary Force
in France and was evacuated from
Boulogne
in May 1940. In November 1940, he was sent to Egypt where he reported on the
6th Australian 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
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Long (front row, second from right) with the other authors of the official history series at a meeting in 1954
In March 1943 Long was appointed general editor of the
Australia in the War of 1939?1945
, a 22-volume official history of Australia's involvement in the Second World War, on the recommendation of
C. E. W. Bean
, editor of the
Official History of Australia in the War of 1914?1918
. Based at the
Australian War Memorial
in
Canberra
, 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 appointed an
OBE
in 1953 for his services as editor of the official history.
[2]
In 1956 he was awarded the Greek Gold Cross of the Royal
Order of the Phoenix
.
Long continued to write after his retirement from the official history project. He was a research fellow with the
Australian Dictionary of Biography
, was part of the team which produced the Australian Government's
Style Guide
and contributed over 90 articles to
The Canberra Times
. 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 the Second World War.
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.
Long died of lung cancer on 10 October 1968 at his home in
Deakin, Australian Capital Territory
, and was cremated.
Notes
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References
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