Thomas Chatterton Hammond (born in Cork, Ireland on 20 February 1877 and died 16 November 1961) was an Irish Anglican clergyman.[1]
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Born in Cork he worked as a railway clerk, he converted in 1892 to the anglican church. Hammond was ordained a deacon in the Church of Ireland in 1903 and priest in 1905. He received a BA in 1903 and subsequently an MA from Trinity College Dublin. Later on in life he was awarded a Th.d. from the [[Australian College of Theology](A.C.T.). He married Margaret McNay in 1906.
He was superintendent of the Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics from 1919 to 1936, where he engaged in evangelistic missions in Dublin and often in controversies with Roman Catholic apologists. A lively intellectual, his expertise in doctrinal difficulty was often sought by the bishops of the Church of Ireland, but not always publicly acknowledged. Hammond also helped draw up the constitution of the Anglican Church of Australia (at that time called the Church of England in Australia) and safe-guarded the independence of the Diocese of Sydney. He was also helpful in drawing up a constitution for the Church of England in South Africa, a denomination that was created separately from the largely Anglo-Catholic dominated Church of the Province of South Africa.
In 1936, Hammond left Ireland to take up position as Principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney. In addition, he was made the rector of St Philip's, York Street. He was made an archdeacon in 1949. His best-known books are In Understanding be Men (a handbook of Christian doctrine) and The One Hundred Texts, with Bible verses explaining Reformed teaching.
Hammond was a controversial figure both in Ireland and Australia as a member of the Orange Order in Dublin and Sydney[2], eventually rising to the position of Grand Master of the Orange Institution of New South Wales in 1961.[3] In recent times, his involvement in the establishment and running of the Bethany Home, a home for orphans, unmarried mothers and their children, and petty criminals, has also been raised for questioning, particularly due to the high mortality rate.[4] The home is subject to ongoing calls to be added to the State redress scheme for victims of child, neglect, sexual and physical abuse.[5] Hammond sat on the board of trustees of the Bethany Home from 1922 until 1935, as other members of the Church of Ireland clergy did throughout its existence.
Hammond died on 16 November 1961. A biography, T C Hammond - Irish Christian, by Warren Nelson was published in 1994.