Adele Evelina Johnson Tucker

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(8 August 1868 – 4 January 1971) was a Bermudian schoolteacher and trade unionist. She is best known as one of the founders of the

Bermuda Union of Teachers The Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) is a trade union representing education workers in Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , ma ...

, the first registered union on the island. Tucker was born in

Warwick Parish Warwick Parish is one of the nine parishes of Bermuda. It is named after Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1587-1658). It is located in the central south of the island chain, occupying part of the main island to the southeast of the Great Soun ...

, one of eight children born to Catherine and Thomas Tucker. She reputedly grew up in a house built by

Hezekiah Frith Hezekiah Frith, Sr. (1763–1848) was an 18th-century British ship owner with the reputation of a "gentleman privateer", who engaged in piracy during the 1790s. One of the richest men in Bermuda during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, he ...

, an 18th-century

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

. Tucker's father worked as a mason. She left school at the age of 13, a year after her mother's death, in order to assist with the housework. At the age of 18, Tucker found work in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

as an assistant at a school run by Jairus Swan. In 1892, she began attending the Collegiate Institute, a teachers' college run by the

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...

. She subsequently served as principal of the Edmonson School in Warwick from 1896 to 1901, and then in 1902 took over the Paget Glebe School in Hamilton. She never married, but she and her sisters raised two children that had been orphaned by one of their cousins.Adele Evelina Johnson Tucker
Bermuda Bios. Retrieved 30 November 2017. In 1903, Tucker appeared before a commission into the school system, making a range of complaints about low salaries, understaffing, and underresourcing. After the deaths of several impoverished young teachers, she and three others – Rufus Stovell, Edith Crawford, and Matilda Crawford – formed the Bermuda Union of Teachers in 1919 to lobby for better conditions. She served as the first treasurer of the organisation, which in 1947 became the first trade union in Bermuda to achieve legal recognition (following the passage of a new law). Tucker was forcibly retired from teaching at the age of 65, but remained involved in a number of community organisation. In the 1951 Birthday Honours, she was made a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

.''London Gazette''
1 June 1951. Retrieved 30 November 2017. She became something of a celebrity in old age, and was frequently interviewed by newspapers on her birthdays. Tucker died at the age of 102, and her funeral was attended by Henry Tucker, the Government Leader. She has appeared on Bermudian postal stamps as part of the "Pioneers of Progress" series.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Adele 1868 births 1971 deaths British centenarians Bermudian women Women trade unionists Bermudian educators People from Warwick Parish Women centenarians