Gerard Tucker

Gerard Kennedy Tucker (18 February 1885 – 24 May 1974) was an Anglican priest in Melbourne, Australia.

Tucker founded the Brotherhood of St Laurence in 1931 and the forerunner of Oxfam Australia in 1953.

Life

Tucker was born in South Yarra, Melbourne and was educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School. 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 1908 he entered St John's Theological College, Melbourne.

Having served as deacon to a parish in north-west Australia, he was ordained as a priest in 1914, becoming curate of St George's Malvern. 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.

In 1920 Tucker was appointed to a parish near Newcastle, New South Wales, where he met Guy Colman Cox who shared his dream of a community of serving priests. In 1930 they founded the Brotherhood of St Laurence. Its four original members pledged to remain unmarried while part of the brotherhood, to live frugally and to practise an active community life.

He was appointed as missioner to St Mary’s Mission within the parish of St Peter’s Eastern Hill in Melbourne - both he and Guy Cox licensed as curates in the same parish (1933)

Tucker moved in 1949 to Carrum Downs 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, they became a national organization. Tucker published pamphlets in support of the project and, in 1954, an autobiography.

Tucker was honoured with an OBE in 1956. He retired to St Laurence Park at Lara, Victoria in 1959. He moved into its first cottage where he remained until his death and was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Tucker is reported to have been a member of the Eugenics Society of Victoria.

External links

• Biography (Australian National University)
• Brotherhood of St Laurence
• Brotherhood Timeline
• Oxfam Australia