William Tyrrell

1807-1879. First bishop of Newcastle, Australia. Educated at Charterhouse and St. John's College, Cambridge, he was ordained in 1833 and became incumbent of Beaulieu in Hampshire in 1839. Eight years later, when W.G. Broughton* divided the diocese of Australia, Tyrrell became bishop of the northern part of Eastern Australia based on the small town of Newcastle. He arrived in 1848 to find only eleven clergy to cover his vast diocese of over 20,000 square miles. In 1859 the diocese of Brisbane was separated from Newcastle, and in 1867 after a long delay the diocese of Grafton and Armidale took the northern part of New South Wales from Tyrrell's diocese. He was generous in supporting his clergy and building churches in his diocese. He died at Morpeth where he had lived, and left a large property as an endowment for the diocese.