author
Alfred Tucker
1849–1914
An artist turned missionary bishop, he played a major role in the early Anglican church in East Africa and wrote vividly about his years in Uganda. His life joined painting, preaching, and the complicated history of empire.
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About the author
Born in Woolwich, England, on April 1, 1849, Alfred Robert Tucker first trained as an artist and even exhibited at the Royal Academy before entering the church. He later became an Anglican missionary bishop and is best known for his work in East Africa.
He served as Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa from 1890 to 1899, with responsibilities spanning areas that now include Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and then as Bishop of Uganda from 1899 to 1908. Sources about his life also note his strong interest in African church leadership and his long influence on the growth of Anglican institutions in the region.
Tucker died in 1914. He is remembered both for his missionary career and for the books and memoirs that grew out of it, which offer a firsthand window into a formative and often difficult period in the history of Christianity in East Africa.