Gerard Kennedy Tucker OBE (18 February 1885 – 24 May 1974) was an Anglican priest in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Tucker founded the

Brotherhood of St Laurence The Brotherhood of St Laurence is an Australian not-for-profit organisation working toward an Australia free of poverty. The Brotherhood (as it is colloquially known) has its headquarters in Melbourne but provides services and programs across Au ...

in 1930 and the forerunner of

Oxfam Australia Oxfam Australia is an Australian, independent, not-for-profit, secular, community-based aid and development organization, and is an affiliate of the Oxfam International confederation. Oxfam Australia's work is divided into four broad categories co ...

in 1953.

Early life

Tucker was born in the vicarage of

Christ Church, South Yarra Christ Church, South Yarra is the Anglican parish church of the suburb of South Yarra in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The parish is in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and dates from 1856. The parish is well known as belonging to the Angl ...

, Melbourne, where his father (the Rev Horace Finn Tucker) was the vicar. He was educated at

Melbourne Church of England Grammar School Melbourne Grammar School is an Australian Independent school, independent Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Day school, day and boarding school. It comprises a co-educational preparatory school from Prep to Year 6 and a middle school and seni ...

. From childhood he wanted to follow his father and grandfather as a priest. He worked briefly in a sugar factory and on a relation's farm, but his father finally agreed that he should study for the priesthood. In 1906 he entered

St Wilfrid's Theological College, Cressy St Wilfrid's Theological College was an Australian educational institution in Bishopsbourne, Tasmania, established in 1904 and which closed in 1929. It trained candidates for ordination in the Church of England in Australia (as the Anglican Chu ...

and in 1908 moved to

St John's Theological College, Melbourne St John's Theological College, Melbourne was an Australian educational institution in Melbourne, established in 1906 and closed in 1919. It trained candidates for ordination in the Church of England in Australia. History The college took over bui ...

Association of the Divine Call

In 1908, two students at St John's decided to form a religious community, the Association of the Divine Call, with three-year vows of celibacy. The two students were Maurice Richard Daustini Kelly and Tucker. Three other students joined. The establishment of the Association received a lukewarm response from Archbishop Lowther Clarke, and, after ordination to the diaconate in 1910, the members of the community went their own ways. Kelly became a member of the

Community of the Ascension The Community of the Ascension (known as CA and the Ascensionists) was an Anglican religious community for men in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia. It was the first male Anglican religious order to be successfully established in Australia, ...

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

in 1921, but died just five years later.

Clerical career

Having served as curate in Onslow in north-west Australia from 1910 to 1912, he was ordained as a priest in 1914, becoming curate of St George's,

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

. On the outbreak of war he enlisted as a private soldier and sailed for the Middle East in December 1915. He was later appointed chaplain to the Australian Imperial Force, serving in Egypt and France until he was invalided back to Australia in 1917. In 1919 he published ''As Private and Padre with the A.I.F.'' After a brief period as assistant chaplain to the

Missions to Seamen The Mission to Seafarers (formerly The Missions to Seamen) is a Christian welfare charity serving merchant crews around the world. It operates through a global Mission 'family' network of chaplains, staff and volunteers and provides practical, em ...

in Melbourne (1919-20), Tucker was invited to

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area, w ...

by the bishop,

Reginald Stephen Reginald Stephen (9 December 1860 - 7 July 1956) was the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania from 1914 until 1919 and then the Bishop of Newcastle (New South Wales) from 1919 until his retirement in 1928. Stephen was educated at Geelong Church of Englan ...

, whose second wife was Tucker's sister Elsie. Stephen had also been the warden of St John's College in Melbourne when Tucker was training for ordination there. In 1920 Tucker was appointed to St Stephen's, Adamstown, a parish near Newcastle, where he met Guy Colman Cox who shared his dream of a community of serving priests. In 1930 they founded the

. Its four original members pledged to remain unmarried while part of the brotherhood, to live frugally and to practise an active community life. Tucker remained at Adamstown until 1933. He was appointed as missioner to St Mary's Mission within the parish of

St Peter's, Eastern Hill St Peter's, Eastern Hill is the Anglican parish church of the City of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The parish is in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and dates from 1847. The letters patent of Queen Victoria declaring the city status of Mel ...

in Melbourne - both he and Guy Cox were licensed as curates in the same parish (1933). In 1939 Tucker recruited the pacifist and social activist (and future Chairman of the

Australian Board of Missions The Anglican Board of Mission - Australia (ABM), formerly Australasian Board of Missions and Australian Board of Missions, is the national mission agency of the Anglican Church of Australia. In its earliest form, it was established in 1850. ...

and Archbishop-elect of Brisbane)

Frank Coaldrake Frank William Coaldrake (12 March 1912 – 22 July 1970) was an Australian priest in the Church of England in Australia (as the Anglican Church of Australia was then called). A noted pacifist during WWII, Coaldrake was subsequently an Anglican ...

to the Brotherhood of St Laurence to work in the inner-Melbourne suburb of

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

as a community worker.

Food for Peace and Community Aid Abroad

Tucker moved in 1949 to

Carrum Downs Carrum Downs is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 36 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Frankston local government area. Carrum Downs recorded a population of 21,976 at the 2021 ce ...

where he soon embarked on his new project, Food for Peace. He encouraged residents at the settlement to contribute from their pensions to send a shipment of rice to India. Supporting groups formed throughout Australia and in 1961, as

Community Aid Abroad Oxfam Australia is an Australian, independent, not-for-profit, secular, community-based aid and development organization, and is an affiliate of the Oxfam International confederation. Oxfam Australia's work is divided into four broad categories c ...

, they became a national organization. Tucker published pamphlets in support of the project and, in 1954, an autobiography, ''Thanks Be''.

Personal life

Tucker was honoured with an OBE in 1956. He retired to St Laurence Park at

Lara, Victoria Lara is a town in Victoria, 18 km north-east of the Geelong CBD, inland from the Princes Freeway to Melbourne. Its population at the 2016 census was 16,355. History The explorers Hume and Hovell arrived at Lara on December 16, 1824, beli ...

in 1959. He moved into its first cottage where he remained until his death and was buried in the

Melbourne General Cemetery The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large (43 hectare) necropolis located north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North. The cemetery is notably the resting place of four Prime Ministers of Australia, more than any other nec ...

. Tucker is reported to have been a member of the Eugenics Society of Victoria.A theory out of the darkness.
Retrieved 13 September 2011.

References

External links

Brotherhood of St Laurence

Brotherhood Timeline

Oxfam Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Gerard 1885 births 1974 deaths 20th-century Australian Anglican priests People educated at St John's Theological College, Melbourne Burials at Melbourne General Cemetery People educated at Melbourne Grammar School Clergy from Melbourne People from South Yarra, Victoria