Catalogue

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Alfred Robert Tucker was born on 1 April 1849, the second son of Edward Tucker, artist, of Miln Close, Windermere. His early life was spent in the Lake District. He was educated as an artist and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874. During his fifteen-year career as an artist, he was also engaged in Christian work and decided finally that he should devote his life to the latter.

He went up to Oxford in 1879, in 1881 became a member of Christ Church, and graduated in 1882. After being ordained in 1882, he became curate of St. Andrew the Less, Clifton, and in 1885, curate of St. Nicholas, Durham. In 1890, he wrote to the Church Missionary Society offering his services in the missionary field and was appointed bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa. He was consecrated at St. Mary's, Lambeth, on 25 April 1890 and the same night left London for Zanzibar leaving behind his wife and son. He travelled to Uganda on foot taking the same route as the first bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, James Hannington, who was martyred on 21 October 1885 near Lake Victoria Nyanza.

In 1891, bishop Tucker returned to England. While here, he raised money to persuade the British East Africa Company to maintain its presence in Uganda, especially as the King of the Baganda, Mwanga, had recently entered into a treaty with the company. The Church Missionary Society's Gleaners' Union subscribed £8,000 at one meeting and £8,000 more was subscribed within a week. With this money, the company continued its activities for a further year; in 1892 Sir Gerald Herbert Portal was sent to report on the situation in Uganda. As a result of his recommendations, Uganda became a British Protectorate in 1894.

In 1899, the see of Eastern Equatorial Africa was divided. What later became known as Kenya Colony (1920) and what was then part of German East Africa, later Tanganyika Territory (1920), became the diocese of Mombasa and Tucker became bishop of Uganda.

Tucker was particularly concerned with the suppression of the slave trade: the native Ugandans traded slaves with the Arabs, who entered the country through Zanzibar, in return for guns, ammunition and cloth.

Bishop Tucker remarked that when he first went out in 1891 there were 200 Christians in Uganda; in 1901 there were over 30,000. In addition, there were then over 700 churches and 2000 native teachers. When he retired in 1911, there were over 100,000 Anglican Christians, hundreds of churches and schools and a regular synod of British and African clergy.

Bishop Tucker travelled, according to his own account, 15 to 16,000 miles in his diocese and had crossed Lake Victoria Nyanza half a dozen times. He brought back many pictures of the wonderful scenery of Uganda, some of which decorated his house in Durham. These included a picture of Entebbe, a view from the lower slopes of Recensori of a distant hill across the Semliki river, a view of the cathedral of Mengo, the King's Lake at Mengo and the Ripon Falls at the source of the Nile.

In 1908 he published two volumes of reminiscences, Eighteen Years in Uganda and East Africa, illustrated by his own sketches.
On his return to England, bishop Tucker was appointed a canon of Durham Cathedral. He died on 15 June 1914 while attending a conference on 'faith and order' at Westminster.
Bishop Tucker was buried in Durham Cathedral on 19 June 1914.

On 27 October 1893, Bishop Tucker left Freretown for England to be on hand when Sir Gerald Portal's report was to be discussed. By July 1894, he was back in Mombasa. The sketches following reflect his journey back from England and 'journey to Uganda'.

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