Tucker, Albert Edward Hosking (1884-1959)

Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference

ALBERT EDWARD HOSKINS TUCKER: born in East Ham in 1885. After being trained at Hartley College, he entered on his first appointment in 1909, retiring in 1953 after a distinguished ministry of forty-four years. For twenty-seven years he served in East Anglia, where he is remembered still with gratitude and affection.

The last thirteen years of his ministry were spent in the London South-east District, and his notable service in the Medway Towns circuit during the difficult years of war was an outstanding example of devoted and inspiring leadership. He was secretary of the Synod from 1946 to 1951, and brought to that office great administrative ability, wise judgement, and a wealth of sympathetic understanding. 

He was a member of several Connexional committees and his contributions to discussions were always listened to with respect. He served his brethren for several years as secretary of the Primitive Methodist Friendly Society, a task he discharged with fidelity and Christian love. He was a staunch Free Churchman, and both local and national councils owed much to his interest and support. 

In the pulpit he was essentially a teacher. He read widely, and the fruit of his reading was apparent in the depth and substance of his sermons. He proclaimed the Christian faith with intellectual conviction and spiritual fervour, relating it to current problems, about which he thought and read deeply. 

He was a man of complete integrity, a great lover of justice, and was never afraid to champion unpopular causes if he felt they were right. He commanded the respect of his brethren because he was so obviously sincere and free from all self-seeking. Those who knew him best knew how great his courage was. He faced and bore personal sorrows and losses with Christian grace and fortitude, and from his troubles derived the power to minister graciously and helpfully to others in like need. 

His years of retirement were spent in Folkestone, and there, because of his personal qualities, his lovableness and humility, his readiness to help and his great concern for young people, he commanded affection and respect far beyond the borders of the Methodist Church. He died on 13 March 1959 in the seventy-fourth year of his age and the fiftieth of his ministry.

Family

Albert was born on 12 October 1884 at East Ham, Essex, to parents Samuel tucker, an assurance agent (1891) and later a commercial traveller (1901), and Bessie Jane Hicks.

The 1901 census return records Albert working as a typist.

He married Edith Bessie Farrow (1888-1942) in the summer of 1919 at East Dereham, Norfolk. Birth records identify two children.

• Vivian John (1923-1951)
• Gladys M (1925-1929)

He married Winnie Emma Blaxland (1918-2010) in the summer of 1951 in the Chatham Registration District, Kent.

Albert died on 12 March 1959 at Folkstone, Kent.

Circuits

• Hartley
• 1909 Saffron Walden
• 1911 Birmingham V
• 1912 Plumstead
• 1913 Fakenham
• 1916 Swaffham
• 1918 E Dereham
• 1922 Norwich
• 1928 Wymondham
• 1935 Wisbech
• 1940 Medway Towns
• 1946 Shooters Hill
• 1948 Deal
• 1953 Folkstone (S)

References

Methodist Minutes 1959/197

W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

Note: Albert’s probate record records his third name as Hosking, not Hoskins as recorded in the obituary.