Edward Charles Long, medical practitioner, was the son of George Long and his wife Louisa, born Monk. He followed various commercial pursuits until the age of 21, when he came to South Africa to relieve the symptoms of tuberculosis. After private study he matriculated through the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1882. Upon his return to England he studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital and, after winning two gold medals and several scholarships and prizes, qualified as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS, England) and a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London (LRCP) in 1889. He returned to South Africa that same year to join the Basutoland (now Lesotho) Medical Service, of which he was the principal medical officer by 1896, stationed in Maseru. He remained in this post until at least 1906. On 15 April 1890 he was licensed to practice medicine in the Orange Free State, and on 8 July 1898 to practice in the Cape Colony. He was a member of the (second) South African Medical Association and from July 1896 or earlier to at least April 1897 edited the Notes section of the South African Medical Journal (second series). On 20 July 1899 he married Hilda Charlotte Harrison, but they had no children.

In 1904 Dr Long compiled notes on the geology of Lesotho. During the next year he presented dinosaurian remains to the South African Museum in Cape Town. That same year he became a member of the South African Philosophical Society, but remained a member for only a year or two. By 1906 he had also joined the Geological Society of South Africa, and by 1910 the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. He was then still living in Maseru.

In 1911 Long visited the leper hospital at Sydenham [presumably the suburb of London]. During World War I (1914-1918) he served with the French Red Cross in France (1916), but that same year published a paper on "An analysis of 300 consecutive laparotomies at Maseru" in the South African Medical Record (Vol. 14, pp. 132-135). In 1921 he was honoured by the British government as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). The next year a paper by him on "Exophthalmic goitre" appeared in the South African Medical Record (1922, Vol. 20(6), pp. 110-115).

List of sources:

Cape of Good Hope. Report of the trustees of the South African Museum, 1905.

FamilySearch: Edward Charles Long. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/GRY9-WWQ

General directory of South Africa, 1903, 1908, 1909.

Geological Society of South Africa. Transactions, 1906, Vol. 10, list of members.

Google scholar. http://scholar.google.co.za Publications by E.C. Long.

Medical and Pharmacy Register for the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, 1907.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Long, E.C. / Dr Long.

Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository, Vol. NMC 34: [List of medical practitioners, etc., registered in the Province of the Cape of Good Hope, as on 31 December 1915; List of medical practitioners, etc., registered in the Province of the Orange Free State, as on 31 December 1916].

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1910, list of members.

South African medical directory for 1897. Cape Town: Cape Times, 1897.

South African Medical Journal (Second series), July 1896- October 1897, Vol. 4, Notes section; May 1897, Vol. 5, pp. 20-21 and January 1898, Vol. 5, pp. 240-242, South African Medical Association (list of members).

South African Medical Record, 1916, Vol. 14, paper by Long.

South African Philosophical Society. Transactions, 1906, Vol. 16, list of members.

Transcribed marriages for Long. Retrieved from http://www.1820settlers.com/genealogy/settlerbrowsemarrs.php?name=LONG on 2018-6-6.

University of the Cape of Good Hope. Calendar, 1884/5.

Who was who, Vol. 3, 2nd ed. London: Adam & Black, 1967.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-03-13 12:32:44