1. Charles Kingston was one of the main proponents of what was later termed the White Australia policy, arguing strongly against Chinese immigration.
35 Facts About Charles Kingston
1. 2.
Charles Kingston was the youngest of six children born to Luduvina Catherina Da Silva and George Strickland Kingston.
3.
Charles Kingston's father, a widower who had re-married, was born in Ireland and trained as an architect and engineer in England.
4.
Charles Kingston was appointed deputy surveyor-general for the new Province of South Australia and arrived in 1836 on board the First Fleet.
5.
Kingston's mother was the daughter of military officer Charles Cameron and his Portuguese-born wife Luduvina Rosa Da Silva, who married in 1812 during the Peninsular War.
6.
Charles Kingston later became the step-daughter of seaman and pastoralist John Finnis, following her father's early death.
7.
Charles Kingston's mother died in 1851 at the age of 27, after which he and his siblings were probably raised by servants as their father was heavily involved in business and political activities.
8.
Charles Kingston formed a close bond with his older brother Strickland.
9.
Charles Kingston left the school at the end of 1867 and decided to study law, beginning his articles of clerkship in March 1868 with future attorney-general Samuel Way.
10.
Charles Kingston 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 Charles Kingston's alleged seduction of her.
11.
In 1873 Charles Kingston married Lucy McCarthy, who was disabled for much of her life.
12.
Charles Kingston was jailed for the gunshot wounding of a cabdriver in June 1884 and killed himself after losing an important case in Port Augusta.
13.
Charles Kingston had a passion for Australian rules football in South Australia and helped formulate its code and was president of the South Adelaide Football Club and chief patron of both South Adelaide football and cricket clubs.
14.
Charles Kingston favoured reform of the Legislative Council and other radical reforms.
15.
Charles Kingston was described by William Maloney as the originator of the White Australia policy; he was opposed to Chinese immigration, and was very involved in crafting the framework for regulating it.
16.
Charles Kingston was Chief Secretary, Attorney-General and Minister for Industry from 1895 to 1899.
17.
Charles Kingston came to office with the support of a new third party, the South Australian division of the Labor Party, led by John McPherson, which held the balance of power.
18.
Charles Kingston was a great hero to liberals and working-class voters and much hated by conservatives.
19.
Charles Kingston arranged for a duel but Baker had him arrested.
20.
Charles Kingston was thus bound over to keep the peace for a year.
21.
Charles Kingston did not support votes for women at the 1893 elections but was persuaded by his ministerial colleagues, John Cockburn and Frederick Holder of its political advantages, and was lobbied by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
22.
Charles Kingston's government established the State Bank of South Australia, regulated factories, imposed death duties, and increased land tax and progressive income taxes.
23.
When Tom Buxton was appointed Governor of South Australia, Charles Kingston was angry that the government had not been involved in the decision and so made life as hard as possible for Buxton and his family.
24.
Charles Kingston turned down the offer of a knighthood, to the distress of his wife.
25.
Charles Kingston lobbied senior British politicians in favour of Australian federation.
26.
In 1899, Charles Kingston's government was defeated in the House on a bill sponsored by an anti-Federationist, but relating to the reform of the Legislative Council, and Charles Kingston resigned as Premier.
27.
Charles Kingston was a leading figure in the popular movement for federation, and in 1900, he travelled to London with Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin to oversee the passage of the federation bill through the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
28.
Charles Kingston was a "high protectionist" and favoured very high tariffs to protect Australia's fledgling manufacturing industries.
29.
Charles Kingston insisted on involving himself in the administrative details of his department and insisted on prosecutions of businesses to enforce his high-tariff policies.
30.
Charles Kingston was re-elected unopposed at the 1903 federal election and made his final parliamentary speech in March 1904, which left him exhausted; a month later he was admitted to a private hospital in Melbourne.
31.
From 1904, Charles Kingston was frequently absent from the House for medical reasons, but was nonetheless re-elected unopposed at the 1906 election.
32.
Charles Kingston was nursed by his wife Lucy at their home south of Adelaide, with visitors including John Langdon Bonython noting his obvious mental decline.
33.
Charles Kingston died in Adelaide on 11 May 1908 following a stroke the previous day, less than a week after the death of his older sister Ludovina.
34.
Charles Kingston was buried at the local West Terrace Cemetery, survived by his wife who died in 1919.
35.
Charles Kingston's body was exhumed in March 2008, nearly 100 years after his death because two people thought they may be his direct descendants from one of his illegitimate children.