Gerard Kennedy Tucker

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Father Gerard Kennedy Tucker (1885 - 1974) was an Anglican clergyman in Melbourne, Australia.

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

[edit] Life

Born on 18 February 1885 at South Yarra, Melbourne, he was educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School . From childhood he wanted to follow his father and grandfather into the Church. 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 Gerard entered St John's Theological College, Melbourne.

Having served as deacon to a parish in north-west Australia he was ordained 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.

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.

He retired to St Laurence Park at Lara, Victoria, in 1959. Tucker moved into its first cottage where he remained until his death on 24 May 1974. He was buried in Melbourne general cemetery.

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