Everything about Charles Kingston totally explained
Charles Cameron Kingston, (
October 22 1850 -
May 11 1908)
Australian
politician, was
Premier of South Australia and a member of the first
Federal Parliament serving under the
Protectionist Party. He was a leading proponent of the
federation of Australia and introduced the first law to give votes to women in Australia.
Kingston was born in
Adelaide, the son of Sir
George Kingston, a Protestant Irish-born surveyor, architect and landowner in the early days of British settlement in
South Australia and later a member of the first South Australian Parliament. His mother, Ludovina Cameron, was of Portuguese descent. George Kingston boasted that he was "the first Irishman to set foot in the colony" and it's true that the Kingstons were among Adelaide's founding families. Charles was educated at the Adelaide Educational Institution and served his articles with Sir
Samuel Way, Adelaide's leading lawyer and later Attorney-General. He was called to the bar in 1873, despite the objection of the elder brother of his future wife, Lucy May McCarthy on the grounds of Kingston's alleged seduction of her. He became a
QC in 1889.
In 1873 Kingston married Lucy McCarthy. Lucy was an invalid for much of her life and they'd no children. In a remarkable gesture, however, Lucy took in a child, Kevin Kingston, whom Kingston had fathered with another woman, Elizabeth Watson, in 1883. As a result of this scandal, Kingston was ostracised by Adelaide "society," his contempt for whom he never troubled to conceal. Kevin died in
1902.
Political career
In
1881 Kingston was elected to the
South Australian House of Assembly as a member for the working-class district of West Adelaide, as a radical liberal. He favoured reform of the
Legislative Council (which was dominated by wealthy landowners) and other radical reforms. He was rumoured to be a republican, an atheist and to favour the abolition of marriage, but none of these were true. He was described by
William Maloney as the originator of the
White Australia, although this policy came to be supported by virtually all Australian politicians at the time of federation. It is claimed that Kingston was ostracised by Adelaide society for his sexual indiscretions.
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