| Honorific Prefix: | The Reverend |
| William Tuckwell | |
| Birth Date: | 27 November 1829 |
| Birth Place: | Oxford, England |
| Death Place: | Pyrford, England |
| Children: | Gertrude Tuckwell et al. |
| Religion: | Christianity (Anglican) |
| Church: | Church of England |
William Tuckwell (1829–1919), who liked to be known as the "radical parson", was an English Anglican clergyman well known on political platforms for his experiments in allotments, his advocacy of land nationalisation, and his enthusiasm for Christian socialism. He was an advocate of teaching science in the schools.
Tuckwell was born on 27 November 1829. He was the eldest son of Margaret, née Wood (1803/4–1842) and William Tuckwell (1784–1845), a surgeon at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford.[1]
Tuckwell was educated at a preparatory school in Hammersmith before attending Winchester College from 1842 and New College, Oxford, in 1848.
From 1857 to 1864 he was headmaster of New College School. In 1864 the Warden of New College, Oxford, nominated him as headmaster of Taunton Grammar School, later known as Taunton College School.[2] It was recorded that his "energy and vitality" increased the size and quality of the school.
In 1858 he married Rosa Strong (b. 1829/30), eldest daughter of Captain Henry Strong, an Indian army officer. Her younger sister was feminist and trade unionist Emilia Dilke. Rosa and William Tuckwell had four children, one son and three daughters. Their second daughter Gertrude Tuckwell (1861–1951) was a trade unionist, social worker, author, and the first woman magistrate appointed in London.[3]
William Tuckwell died on 1 February 1919. His daughter Gertrude was his executor.
He is best remembered as the author of Reminiscences of Oxford, which records the Oxford of the 1830s, but is somewhat misleading. Owen Chadwick records that he liked to "pretend to be much older than he was. ... What Tuckwell knew about were the fifties and sixties, and his portrait of Tractarian leaders is drawn from experiences in that later time; though quite often he likes to give the impression that it is much earlier."[4]
His daughter was Gertrude Tuckwell, to whom his Reminiscences of a Radical Parson was dedicated.
Tuckwell became active in politics in February 1884, at the time of the great reform bill. His work among the poor had led him to enquire much about their conditions and lives.
Over the next ten years he delivered more than a thousand speeches in support of Christian socialism and in favour of a redistribution of wealth and land.