George Selwyn was educated at Eton and St John’s College, Cambridge. He made friends there with many who were to prove extremely helpful in promoting his work in New Zealand. He was ordained deacon in 1833 and priest a year later and served as a vicar of St Johns, Windsor, a task he combined with tutoring duties at Eton. In 1839 he married Sarah Richardson.

George Selwyn was consecrated bishop of New Zealand in October 1841. He was a remarkable leader. Selwyn saw his role as a bishop was to lead the mission of the church. Selwyn learned sufficient Te Reo on the voyage out to New Zealand to preach and converse a little to Maori on arrival. He had a deep affection for Maori and a strong sense of their worth and equality.

On arrival in New Zealand in 1842 he brought his exceptional energies to bear on organising the church. He made several strenuous tours of his vast diocese on foot, horse-back, by canoe and ship, an arduous, dangerous and difficult undertaking at that time. From 1847 he included the islands of Melanesia in his journeys.

Selwyn’s had great enthusiasm for education. His vision was from pre-school to tertiary education for Maori and Pakeha, and his efforts lead to the founding of St John's College, Auckland.

Selwyn was a vigorous and forceful leader which occasionally led to tensions between him and some of his clergy, particularly the members of the Church Missionary Society, who were responsible to their own organisation as well as to Selwyn. In the Maori Land Wars of the 1860s, his commitment to justice for the Maori people in Taranaki angered many of the European settlers, but, equally, his acting as chaplain to the British troops lost him some Maori support.

George Selwyn's most enduring contribution was the first constitution of the Anglican Church in New Zealand. After 26 years as Bishop of New Zealand, likely viewed by the Church of England as being “in the mission field”. Selwyn returned home to England for the first Lambeth Conference. He was offered and reluctantly agreed to become Bishop of Lichfield, a great honour with its medieval cathedral. He moved there in 1868, his grave is in the cathedral close.

BORN: 5 April 1809, Hampstead, England

DIED:11 April 1878, Bishop's Palace, Lichfield, England.