Australian politician
David Morley Charleston (27 May 1848 – 30 June 1934) was a Cornish -born Australian politician. Born in St Erth , Cornwall , he received only a primary education before becoming an apprentice engineer at Harvey & Co ironworks, and later an engineering unionist in the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in London. In 1874 he moved to San Francisco and worked as a marine engineer for Pacific Mail Steamship Company . Migrating to South Australia in 1884, he continued his engineering work initially on the Hackney Bridge for the Road Board then with the Adelaide Steamship Company , but resigned in 1887 after labour troubles. He subsequently became President of the United Trades and Labour Council of South Australia for a year from February 1889.[ 1]
In 1891 he was elected to the South Australian Legislative Council as a Labor member, but he left the United Labor Party in 1897 and resigned his seat. He was re-elected as an independent at the resulting by-election .[ 1] [ 2] Leaving the Council in 1901, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Free Trader . He was defeated in 1903,[ 3] [ 4] and was later General Secretary of the Farmers and Producers Political Union .[ 5] Several attempts to re-enter the Senate were unsuccessful. Charleston died in 1934.[ 5]
Personal
Charleston married Mary Foster (née Cooke) on 24 December 1895.[ 6] Mary was the daughter of William Cooke of the Britannia Iron Works, Melbourne, and a well-known singer and widow of Fanny Simonsen 's pianist Charles Bunbury Foster,[ 7] who may have died in Queensland in 1894, but details are elusive.
Charleston's sister was the suffragist Nellie Martel .
See also
References