David Charleston

{{Short description|Australian politician (1848–1934)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honourable | image = David Charleston.jpg | title = Senator for South Australia | term_start = 30 March 1901 | term_end = 31 December 1903 | title2 = Member of the South Australian Legislative Council for Central District | term_start2 = {{start_date|1891|df=y}} | term_end2 = {{end_date|1901|df=y}} | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1848|5|27}} | birth_place = St Erth, Cornwall, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1934|6|30|1848|6|20}} | death_place = Mile End, South Australia | party = Labor (1891–97) <br> Free Trade (1897–1903) | relations = Nellie Martel (sister) | occupation = Engineer }} '''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.<ref name="Observer1897"/>

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.<ref name="Observer1897">{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162381353 |title=Hon D. M. Charleston |newspaper=Adelaide Observer |date=18 September 1897 |access-date=14 December 2018 |page=41 |via=Trove}}</ref><ref name="SA parl">{{Cite SA-parl |pid=4052 |name=David Morley Charleston |former=yes |access-date=14 November 2022}}</ref> Leaving the Council in 1901, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Free Trader. He was defeated in 1903,<ref>{{Cite Au Senate |name=Charleston, David Morley (1848-1934) Senator for South Australia, 1901-03 |Sen id=david-morley-charlston |first=Anne |last=Pyle |access-date=2022-08-14}}</ref><ref name="1903 Psephos SA">{{cite web |url=http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/1903/1903senatesa.txt |title=1903 Senate: South Australia |website=Psephos Adam Carr's Election Archive |access-date=2022-11-14}}</ref> and was later General Secretary of the Farmers and Producers Political Union.<ref name=ADB>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|first=Dean|last=Jaensch|title=Charleston, David Morley (1848–1934)|id2=charleston-david-morley-5561|access-date=2022-08-14}}</ref> Several attempts to re-enter the Senate were unsuccessful. Charleston died in 1934.<ref name="ADB" />

==Personal== Charleston married Mary Foster (née Cooke) on 24 December 1895.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196656522 |title=Charleston – Foster |newspaper=Leader |date=18 January 1896 |access-date=3 June 2020 |page=29 |via=Trove }}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article139707017 |title=Social Notes |newspaper=The Australasian |date=9 March 1895 |access-date=3 June 2020 |page=39 |via=Trove }}</ref> who may have died in Queensland in 1894, but details are elusive.

Charleston's sister was the suffragist Nellie Martel.

==See also== *Hundred of Charleston

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charleston, David}} Category:1848 births Category:1934 deaths Category:People from St Erth Category:British emigrants to Australia Category:Australian people of Cornish descent Category:Australian trade unionists Category:Free Trade Party members of the Parliament of Australia Category:Members of the Australian Senate for South Australia Category:Members of the Australian Senate Category:Members of the South Australian Legislative Council Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Category:20th-century Australian politicians