Hussey was educated at a dame school in a house once occupied by the poet William Cowper, and was first employed as office boy for a firm of brewers.
In March 1839 George and Catherine Hussey and four of their children left for South Australia aboard Asia, arriving at Holdfast Bay on 16 July.
He tried country life for a while, but returned to Dehane's printery,[4] where he was involved in production of the first number of John Stephens' The Adelaide Observer (1 July 1843).
[1] His father ran a "bazaar" selling small luxuries, coupled with a land agency, on Hindley Street, at that time Adelaide's premier shopping strip, sharing the premises with his wife Catherine, who started a millinery business.
Mrs Hussey's business flourished, and she built new premises on King William Street, between Rundle and Grenfell, in August 1844.
He left Dehane and joined the staff of the General Post Office, delivering letters to the east side of the city, but after a few months returned again to the print shop.
In 1850 he was able to branch out on his own, and in January 1851 printed the first issue of The Church Intelligencer and Christian Gleaner,[6] a subscription monthly edited by Archdeacon Hale and the Revs.
Hussey returned to job printing in July 1853 from premises on King William Street, opposite the Southern Cross Hotel.
In 1866 George Fife Angas, a wealthy pastoralist and member of Hussey's church, offered him a position as his private secretary, succeeding William Ramage Lawson, who had embarked on a career in journalism.
He also assisted him in founding the Bushman's Home,[17] opened on the south-east corner of Whitmore Square, a building previously the city residence of Judge Cooper, in May 1870/[18] Although already a regular churchgoer, Hussey's interest in religion quickened around the time he started at Dehane's printery on Morphett Street and became involved with the nearby Trinity Church.
[19] He was at Holy Trinity during the incumbency of Colonial Chaplain C. B. Howard and James Farrell, a pre-millenarian, who may have ignited his preoccupation with the Second Coming and Scriptural prophesies.
He was invited to a preliminary meeting held 8 February 1853 to start a local chapter of the Young Men's Christian Association (now YMCA) by Charles Henry Goode.
The nature of the controversy is not known, but a common source of disagreement was the use of certain musical instruments in church: some arguing that only activities mentioned in Scripture were allowed, others that what is not forbidden may be permissible.
In January 1867, with the health of pastor Thomas Playford failing, Hussey accepted the position of his assistant at the Bentham Street Church.
[40] George Edward Hussey (7 November 1792 – 8 September 1842), born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, married Catherine Burt (c. 1793 – 8 June 1874) on 14 February 1821 in London.