Robert Brodribb Hammond

Robert Brodribb Hammond (12 June 1870 – 12 May 1946) was an Australian clergyman and social reformer. Hammond was known for his work as an evangelist in Sydney's working class suburbs and for operating large-scale poverty relief efforts during the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1904 and 1911, Hammond served as organising missioner of the Mission Zone Fund and established a successful ministry in the working class suburbs of inner-city Sydney. Hammond was a particularly fierce advocate of temperance, serving as president of the Australasian Temperance Society between 1916 and 1941. In 1918, Hammond became rector of St Barnabas' Anglican Church, where he continued his work as an evangelist and established one of Sydney's largest social relief programs. During the Great Depression his programs served over 250,000 meals each year and housed thousands of the homeless at eight Hammond Hotels and five Hammond Family Hostels across Sydney. In 1931 he was elected Canon of St Andrew's Cathedral, and in 1939 he was appointed Archdeacon of Redfern.

One of Hammond's achievements was the establishment of Hammondville, a settlement built on Sydney's fringes for unemployed families during the Great Depression. Hammond bought a tract of uncleared bushland outside of Liverpool and built simple cottages, allowing unemployed families with three or more children to move to the community on a rent-purchase basis. The original community operated by Hammond's Pioneer Homes would eventually house 110 families and was home to a primary school, community centre, shops and a post office. The settlement would eventually grow into the suburb of Hammondville, which still bears Hammond's name. His charity eventually became HammondCare after his death, and continues to operate as an independent Christian charity operating aged care centres and health services.