{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{citations|date=December 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = The Honourable |name = Sir Charles Cooper |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|KC}} |image = Charles Cooper 2.jpeg |order = |office = Chief Justice of South Australia{{efn|name=name|Cooper was the sole judge on the Supreme Court from 1838 to 1850. He was officially appointed Chief Justice on 1 July 1856.}} |term_start = 1 July 1856 |term_end = 20 November 1861 |predecessor = ''office established'' |successor = Sir Richard Hanson |office1 = Judge of the Supreme Court of <br/>South Australia |term_start1 = July 1838 |term_end1 = 20 November 1861 |predecessor1 = |successor1 = |birth_name = Charles Cooper |birth_date = 1795 |birth_place = Henley-on-Thames, England |death_date = 24 May 1887 |death_place = London, England |spouse = Emily Newenham |relations = |alma_mater = |education = }}
'''Sir Charles Cooper''' (1795 – 24 May 1887) was the first Chief Justice of South Australia and for two years a politician in the colony of South Australia.
==Early life and education== Charles Cooper was born in 1795 Henley-on-Thames, the third son of Thomas Cooper, under-sheriff of Oxfordshire.
He entered the Inner Temple in 1822 and was called to the bar in February 1827.
==Career== He and his sister Sarah Ann Cooper traveled to the colony of South Australia onboard the Katherine Stewart Forbes, arriving in Adelaide in March 1839.
In September 1860 was sworn in as a member of the Executive Council of South Australia, which was part of the government in the now self-governing colony.
==Honours and legacy== While in South Australia he had a seaside residence adjacent to "The Grange", Charles Sturt's property for which Grange Beach was named. It is likely that Henley Beach was named for Cooper's hometown, after Cooper rejected Sturt's proposed name "Cooper's Beach".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48256205 |title=Out Among the People |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |volume=95 |issue=29,536 |location=South Australia |date=12 June 1953 |accessdate=1 December 2017 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
His city home, at south-east corner of Whitmore Square, was in May 1870 re-opened as the Bushmen's Club, a facility for members visiting the city.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28591705 |title=The Bushmen's Home |newspaper=The South Australian Advertiser |location=South Australia |date=21 May 1870 |accessdate=15 March 2019 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Personal life== Cooper married in 1853 Emily Grace Newenham, eldest daughter of Charles Burton Newenham, Sheriff of the Province. They had no children, and she outlived him.
His sister Sarah Ann Cooper (c. 1804 – 31 May 1895) married William Bartley (1801–1885), Senior Solicitor to the Lands Titles Office, on 23 September 1852.
==References== ===Sources=== *{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=Charles|Last=Cooper|shortlink=0-dict-biogCl-Cu.html#cooper1}} *{{cite web| url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cooper-sir-charles-1918|date=1966 |title= Cooper, Sir Charles (1795 - 1887)|website= Australian Dictionary of Biography| quote=This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, (Melbourne University Press), 1966}}
===Citations=== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite Australasia|Cooper, Sir Charles|page=103}}
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-new}} {{s-ttl| title= Chief Justice of South Australia | years= 1 July 1856 – 20 November 1861}} {{s-aft| after= Richard Hanson}} {{s-end}} {{notelist}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Charles}} Category:1795 births Category:1887 deaths Category:Chief justices of South Australia Category:Judges of the Supreme Court of South Australia Category:Colony of South Australia judges Category:19th-century Australian judges Category:South Australian politicians Category:People from Henley-on-Thames
Category:19th-century Australian politicians Category:Politicians from the Colony of South Australia