The first bishop of Victoria, the Rt. Rev. George Smith, D.D., arrived in the Colony early in 1850; and in September, 1852, during the chaplaincy of the Rev. S. W. Steedman, the cathedral was consecrated. Bishop Smith resigned in 1867, and was succeeded by the Rt. Rev. G. R. Alford, D.D., during whose occupancy of the see the first stone of the new choir was laid by the Duke of Edinburgh. The next occupant of the bishop's chair was the Rt. Rev. John Shaw Burdon, D.D., who was consecrated on March, 15, 1874, and who spent upwards of twenty years in the faithful ministry of his high office. He retired in 1895, beloved by all, and was succeeded by the Rt. Rev. Joseph Charles Hoare, D.D., a man of noble nature, powerful personality, and cool courage. Bishop Hoare's tragic end in the great typhoon of 1906 will not soon be forgotten; the story of his calm resignation to the horribly inevitable will ever be told in the Colony when men speak of the heroes of peace. The present bishop is the Rt. Rev. Gerard Heath Lander, D.D., who was enthroned on November 23, 1907.
To return to the cathedral. In 1891 the Church, which had up till that time been governed by the local legislature, was disestablished, and its control handed over to a Church body, consisting of the bishop, the senior chaplain, and six laymen elected annually—a form of direction which exists to this day. The first chaplain, under the new order of things, was the Rev. R. F. Cobbold, M.A.. who succeeded the Rev. W. Jennings, M.A., and was, in turn, followed, in 1902, by the Rev. Frederick Trench Johnson, M.A., the present incumbent. The lay-members of the Church body are Mr. W. Armstrong, the Hon. Dr. J. M. Atkinson, Dr. Francis Clark (hon. treasurer), Mr. G. A. Hastings, Mr. E. Ormiston, and Mr. A. Bryer (hon. secretary). The cathedral is now entirely self-supporting, there being no endowment.
There is a certain "feeling" of the Early English Gothic style about the structure, and the tower, lofty and graceful, adds a pleasant home-note to the general characteristics of the city. There is a lack of proportion in the building, due chiefly to the length of the choir. To remedy this it is proposed to bring forward the altar and erect a reredos.
The cathedral contains some excellent examples of stained glass. The east window is filled by a memorial to the late Mr. Douglas Lapraik, who died on March 24, 1869. The subjects—the Crucifixion and the Ascension—are treated with a fine breadth of feeling and colour. The clerestory windows in the choir were presented by Lady Jackson, in 1900. In the north transept is a window to the memory of the late Dr. F. Stewart, a former Colonial Secretary, the subject being the sufferance of the children, whilst in the south transept it has been decided to insert a window as a memorial to the late Bishop Hoare.
The upper portion of this window is designed to show St. John in the Isle of Patmos, writing the Revelations, as instructed by an angel sent from God. In the top centre light appears the Lamb enthroned, and upon the Book with Seven Seals, worshipped by the elders, and surrounded by hosts of angels, who sing, "Amen, blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever." Encircling these are "they which came out of great tribulation," &c., holding palms (Rev. vii. 14). At the base of the window, pictures relating to the sea are placed; on the left, Christ calling the disciples, St. James and St. John, whilst mending their nets in the boat; in the centre, Christ stilling the tempest; and, on the right, Christ walking upon the sea and appearing to the disciples in the boat. In the window will appear the inscription: "To the glory of God, and in grateful memory of the episcopate of the Right Rev. Joseph Charles Hoare, D.D., fourth Bishop of Victoria. Born November 15th, 1851; consecrated St. Barnabas Day, 1898; died September 18th, 1906." The cost of the window has been borne by the community, and the designs are in the hands of the well-known Westminster firm of Morris & Co. An additional memorial to the late bishop is the brass tablet, erected by his wife. family, and relations in England, which sets forth the tragic manner of his death. A window depicting the perils of the deep, in memory of Hongkong residents who perished in the wreck of the s.s. Bokhara off the Pescadore Islands, on the night of October 10, 1892, fills one of the smaller lights; another, representing St. Peter receiving the keys, is to the memory of the Hon. Mr. Donall, who died in 1873; a third was erected by the students of St. Paul's College as a tribute to Bishop Smith's devotion to the Colony; and, in a fourth, honour is paid to Elizabeth Frances Higgin and Emma Gertrude Ireland, two hospital sisters, who lost their lives whilst in the execution of their duty during the plague outbreak of 1898. In the baptistry, two windows of exquisite workmanship are erected to the memory of the wife of Edmund Sharp, a former trustee of the cathedral. In the north aisle are two windows presented by the officers and men of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment, "in memory of their comrades who died in China between October 24th, 1858 and December 18th, 1860." A window to the memory of the widow of Henry Kingsmill, depicts women of Old and New Testament mention.
There are numbers of mural tablets, amongst others those commemorating the Peninsular and Oriental officers who perished in the Corca, which foundered, with all on board, in a typhoon on the China Sea on June 30, 1865; the wife of Bishop Burdon; Capt. Colthurst Vesey; Robert Lyall; Capt. Augustus Frederick Hippolyte Da Costa, a captain in the British Corps of Royal Engineers, and Lieut. Dwyer, of the Ceylon Rifles, who were "wantonly attacked and murdered by some Chinese pirates whilst walking by the seaside at Whang Ma Kok, in this Island," on February 25, 1849; Lieut. H. M. Dallas, of the 98th Regiment; William Harding, "one of the best specimens of the British sailor, killed, 1st June, 1848. in a gallant attack by the boats of H.M.S. Scout, off Chimmo Bay, on a large piratical vessel subsequently taken"; Arthur Gordon Ward, organist of the cathedral for eight and a half years, who died in 1905; and Charles May, who died at sea on his homeward passage in 1879, after forty-five years' labours in the Civil Service.
The bishop's throne, a fine specimen of the Chinese carver's art, was presented to the cathedral by Messrs. Robert and Edward Alford, former residents of the Colony, in memory of their father's labours in the diocese. The pulpit was presented by Sir William Robinson, and the choir stalls were constructed of timber taken from the old British man-of-war, the Victor Emmanuel.
On the column behind the lectern hang the colours of the old Hongkong Regiment—the King's colours, and the old yellow regimental ensign—which were deposited in the cathedral for safe-keeping, and "as a memorial of that regiment for ever," at the close of the morning service on October 12, 1902. The regiment afterwards returned to India, where it was disbanded on October 23rd of the same year.
The services of the cathedral are held according to the general usages of the Church of England, matins being sung at 11 a.m., and evensong at 5.45 p.m., with celebrations of the Holy Communion every Sunday at 7.30 a.m., and on certain Sundays at noon. Services are also held on Wednesdays and Fridays, and on Saints' and Holy Days. There is a large and well-trained voluntary choir of between forty and fifty voices, and all the best cathedral services
