George Julius - Early Years

Early Years

George Alfred Julius was born in a small house in Bethel Street, Norwich, England, (demolished in the 1930s to make way for the new City Hall). At that time his father, Churchill Julius (1847–1938), was a curate at St. Giles in Norwich. In 1873 the family moved firstly to the parishes of South Brent (now known as Brent Knoll) and thereafter to Shapwick and Ashcott in Somerset. Later, Churchill Julius became vicar of Holy Trinity, Islington, London; he subsequently accepted the appointment as Archdeacon of Ballarat, Australia and it was to here that the family traveled on the sailing ship "South Australian" in 1884. From an early age, George's mechanical inclination was obvious to his parents and he often helped his father to fix clocks, one of which survives (now decommissioned) in the tower at St. Michael's, Brent Knoll, although George would have been too young to have assisted with this particular repair! The family moved to New Zealand when Churchill Julius was nominated to the Diocese of Christchurch in 1889; he was consecrated (first) Bishop of Christchurch in 1890, and made Anglican Primate and (first) Archbishop of New Zealand in 1922.

In 1890, George Julius enrolled in a B.Sc. (Mechanical Engineering) degree course at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand. Because of the contemporary boom in railway construction, he specialised in railway engineering and was the first such engineering student to graduate from this university, at the same time as Ernest Rutherford.