page_title: George Fincham
section_title: Notable organs
hierarchical_section_title: George Fincham / Notable organs
caption_attribution_description: English: Wooden casing designed by Robert J Haddon 1906 for George Fincham Organ at Malvern Presbyterian Church, Melbourne
context_page_description: George Fincham was an organ builder active in Australia.
  Fincham was born in London; his father and grandfather were both organ builders and so it is not surprising he practised this trade himself. He was apprenticed in 1842–49 to the London organ builder Henry Bevington, and then worked as a foreman for James Bishop & Son. Fincham emigrated to Australia in 1852 and started working as an organ tuner and repairer 113 Queen Street in Melbourne. In 1853 he went to the diggings at Ballarat. He returned to Melbourne in 1854 and worked as a builder on the Spencer Street railway station. Within ten years of his arrival in Australia he had raised sufficient funds to equip a workshop and buy stock to begin organ building as George Fincham & Sons. Also by this time churches had funds for pipe organs and interest in organ music was growing, helped by the arrival of organists such as Charles Horsley, David Lee and the Revd George Torrance in Australia. The organ building business grew and by 1904 he had a branches in Adelaide and Sydney, and agents in Perth and Brisbane.
context_section_description: His notable instruments include:
  Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia (built by Fincham in 1866).
  Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne (built by Fincham in 1880) - considered his magnum opus.
  St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Frankston (built by Fincham's son Leslie Fincham in 1927, and refurbished by his grandson George B. Fincham in 1977).
  St Kilda Town Hall (built by Fincham in 1892) - destroyed by fire on 7 April 1991.
  St Mary Star of the Sea, West Melbourne (built by Fincham between 1898–1900) - "Australia's largest 19th-century instrument still intact".
  Malvern Presbyterian Church, Melbourne (built by Fincham in 1906) - still in good working order.
  St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne (built by Fincham's grandson George B. Fincham in 1962).
caption: Wooden casing designed by Robert J Haddon 1906 for George Fincham Organ at Malvern Presbyterian Church, Melbourne
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