Charles Arthur Hudson (19 December 1866 – 1 May 1937) was an Australian lawyer and politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

from 1905 to 1921. He served as a minister in the governments of

Henry Lefroy Sir Henry Bruce Lefroy (24 March 1854 – 19 March 1930) was the eleventh Premier of Western Australia. Biography Lefroy was born in Perth, Western Australia on 24 March 1854. His father was Anthony O'Grady Lefroy, Colonial Treasurer of Weste ...

and

Hal Colebatch Sir Harry Pateshall Colebatch (29 March 1872 – 12 February 1953) was a long-serving and occasionally controversial figure in Western Australian politics. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council for nearly 20 years, the ...

Early life

Hudson was born in

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, to Annie (née Nicholson) and Charles George Hudson. He left school at the age of 12, working as a

printer's devil A printer's devil was a young apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type. Notable writers including Ambrose Bierce, Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain served ...

, and eventually began training as a lawyer. Hudson was admitted to the Victorian

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in 1892, and subsequently worked in various country towns, including

Shepparton Shepparton () ( Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparton, ...

Morwell, Victoria Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, in South-Eastern Victoria, Australia approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne. Morwell has a population of 14,389 people at the . It is both the seat of local governme ...

Traralgon Traralgon ( ) is a town located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia and the most populous city of the City of Latrobe. The urban population of Traralgon at the was 26,907. It is the largest and fastes ...

, and

Terang Terang is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of Corangamite and on the Princes Highway south west of the state's capital, Melbourne. At the , Terang had a population of 1,824. At the 2001 census, ...

. He moved to Western Australia in the early 1900s, and began practising at Norseman on the

Eastern Goldfields The Eastern Goldfields is part of the Western Australian Goldfields in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, covering the present and former gold-mining area east of Perth. Extent and name origin The region encompasses the town ...

.Charles Arthur Hudson
– Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 11 January 2017.

Politics

Hudson entered parliament at the 1905 state election, winning the seat of Dundas for the Labor Party. He was re-elected in 1908, but prior to the 1911 election decided to transfer to the neighbouring seat of Yilgarn. Hudson defeated the sitting member, Austin Horan, for Labor

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presele ...

, and also defeated Horan (standing as an independent) in the general election. He was re-elected in 1914, to what was considered a safe Labor seat. After the Labor Party split of 1916, Hudson joined the

National Labor Party The National Labor Party was formed by Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes in 1916, following the 1916 Labor split on the issue of World War I conscription in Australia. Hughes had taken over as leader of the Australian Labor Party and Pri ...

. He was made a

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

when

became

premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

in June 1917, and the following month replaced

John Scaddan John Scaddan, CMG (4 August 1876 – 21 November 1934), popularly known as "Happy Jack", was Premier of Western Australia from 7 October 1911 until 27 July 1916. Early life John Scaddan was born in Moonta, South Australia, into a Cornish A ...

(another Labor defector) as Minister for Mines and Minister for Railways, following Scaddan's defeat at a

ministerial by-election A ministerial by-election is a by-election to fill a vacancy triggered by the appointment of the sitting member of parliament (MP) as a minister in the cabinet. The requirement for new ministers to stand for re-election was introduced in the Hous ...

. In April 1919, when Lefroy was replaced as premier by

, Hudson was retained in the ministry and became Colonial Secretary. However, he served in the position for only a month, as Colebatch was quickly replaced by James Mitchell (who did not keep him on as a minister). Hudson lost his seat to

Edwin Corboy Edwin Wilkie "Ted" Corboy (24 August 1896 – 6 August 1950) was an Australian politician. From 1918 to 2010, he held the record as the youngest ever Australian Member of Parliament#Australia, Member of Parliament. Early life Born in Victoria, ...

of the Labor Party at the 1921 state election.

Later life

After leaving parliament, Hudson practised law at Albany for a period, and then moved to Perth. He was confined to a nursing home in Subiaco for the last years of his life, dying there in 1937, aged 70. Hudson had married Jane Ellen Wiggins in 1892, although they had no children. He was widowed in 1927.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson, Charles 1866 births 1937 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia 19th-century Australian lawyers National Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Politicians from Geelong 20th-century Australian lawyers