The Revd Christopher Byers writes:
AT THE St Lawrence cricket ground in Canterbury, Canon Gerald Hudson watched the Kent batsmen pile on the runs. The score reached 337, and he was heard to say: “Ah, 337! English Hymnal: ‘As pants the hart for cooling streams’.” He had a whimsical sense of humour, and a retentive mind that could enlighten and enliven any conversation.
Gerald died on 13 February, aged 89. He was born at New Cross, south-east London, to parents who favoured hard work and self-discipline, and were wary of showing affection or emotion. The family moved to Kennington when Gerald was three. He attended St John the Divine, and the boys’ prep school next door, run by two sisters who filled their pupils with terror.
Alleyn’s School, Dulwich, in contrast, allowed Gerald to flourish. He excelled at English and History, and won prizes for poetry. After much agonising, just after the Second World War had started, he took up a place at Exeter College, Oxford, to read theology.
At Oxford, he met Meg, his future wife, who brought the warmth and practicality that would otherwise have been missing; and in 1942, he went to train at Wescott House, Cambridge.
Ordained in 1943, Gerald served his title in the bombed-out parish of St Paul’s, Deptford. Life in the clergy house, under the Rector, Douglas Robb, who did not believe in marriage for his curates, was narrow and awkward. “Not amenable to discip-line” was the verdict when he resented buying a trilby hat for visiting out of his £200 a year. Then, mercifully, there was a new rector, an appointment to the daughter church of St Mark’s, and marriage in April 1945.
From 1947 to 1951, Gerald was Vicar of Holy Cross, Motspur Park. A new church was built, designed by Ralph Covell, a lifelong friend. Then, with a growing family, Gerald spent nine hectic years at St Lawrence’s, Catford. Sunday-morning mass was followed by breakfast for 150. Gerald spoke out against racism and the Suez War.
From 1960 to 1970, at the suggestion of John Robinson, a Westcott House contemporary, he was Vicar of Holy Trinity, Roehampton, a parish with the largest high-rise housing estates in Europe. Soon an expert on the residents’ problems, Gerald was also chaplain to Queen Mary’s Hospital, had care of two old-people’s homes, and chaired the governors of the church school. Fortunately, he had a staff of four curates.
Gerald thrived at the centre of things, where he needed to be. These were the days of South Bank religion. Later, like many of his contemporaries, he was saddened by a retreat, as he saw it, from the world’s agenda into rows about sex and sexuality. Some of his closest colleagues were gay; and later, on a sabbatical at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in California, he saw for himself the integrity of women preparing for ordination.
In 1970, Gerald was asked to consider the post of Principal of the Southwark Ordination Course, based at Bletchingley. The chance to lead in this pioneering work, and experience a more academic life again appealed strongly. When he was appointed, he was delighted to find Peter Selby as Vice-Principal.
Bishop Selby recalls that Gerald “moved an institution that had got stuck, forward into quite a different ethos and way of working. He always had a new thought, and was a large and enlarging person, aware of the bigger picture hidden in the debate. He came across as someone full of warmth and compassion, and aware of the relationship between the divine and the absurd.”
Gerald’s English wit and charm went down well in the United States; but his sabbatical there unsettled him. He found it hard to be back in Bletchingley; for he was becoming aware that his method of teaching was being overtaken by new ideas and technology.
A chance meeting with Donald Coggan pointed him in a new direction, to St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London. The Revd George Bush, a successor, writes: “When he was appointed here in 1980, such were the days that the news justified half a page in The Times. Although I think he may have quickly felt unsuited to some of the rituals and demands of the City, I have always maintained that he was too cruel a self-critic, dismissing his time at St Mary-le-Bow as less than a success.
“He it was who first sought to bring Christian wisdom and theological acuity to bear on some aspects of the economic order and the financial services industry. He presided over the tercentenary of Wren’s rebuilding, and sought to wed the parish more closely to the constituency of local businesses. And, famously, he, under assault, proposed the sale of a small portion of the parish’s unusable silver to create a fresh endowment after the depredations of parish glebe in earlier decades.”
Gerald retired in 1985, and moved to Whitstable. For two years he ran the Post-Ordination Training Course for Canterbury diocese, and was chaplain to the diocesan house at Westgate. He was able to indulge his love of music and reading, and delighted in regular visits by his grandchildren. He started a monthly theological study group, which flourished for many years, and through it made new and valued friendships. And on a summer’s day he would quietly watch the cricket with Meg at his side.