Sir Charles Samuel Nathan CBE (23 July 1870 – 5 June 1936) was an Australian businessman, politician, and philanthropist. For many years an economic adviser to the Commonwealth government and the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

of Western Australia, he was later elected to the Legislative Council of Western Australia, serving from 1930 to 1934.

Early life and business career

Nathan was born to a Jewish family in

South Melbourne, Victoria South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

, with his parents, Flora (née Levy) and Solomon David Nathan, both born in England. The family soon immigrated to New Zealand, and Nathan attended school in Christchurch. He briefly trained as a solicitor, but did not go any further down that path. After a period in Dunedin, Nathan left for Australia, arriving in New South Wales in 1890 before going on to Western Australia four years later. There, he set up as a merchant in the port city of

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

.David Mossenson
Nathan, Sir Charles Samuel (1870–1936)
–

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed 18 June 2015. In 1901, Nathan joined Charles Atkin and Co. (later Atkins Pty Ltd), a large South Australia-based manufacturing concern with which he would remain involved until 1927, as business manager (from 1903) and then as managing director (from 1911).Black, David, and Bolton, Geoffrey (1990).
Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia: Volume One (1870–1930)
'', p. 149.

Public career

Nathan first entered public life in 1901, when he was elected as a councillor for the East Fremantle Municipality. He served in that role until 1905, when he unsuccessfully ran for mayor against the incumbent, William Angwin, losing by 59 votes as he polled 46.31 percent of the total. He then went on to serve on the Fremantle Municipal Tramways board for several years. During the First World War, Nathan involved himself in several charitable funds relating to the war effort. After the conclusion of the war, in addition to his personal business activities, he was often invited to fill various positions on state and federal government advisory bodies. In 1921, during his term (from 1920 to 1923) as chairman of the state government's Council of Industrial Development, he led a trade delegation to

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

and Java. Nathan also conducted trade negotiations for the federal government in the United Kingdom, serving as a commissioner to the British Empire Exhibition in London in 1924. He was involved in the federal Advisory Council of Science and Industry (now

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

) from its beginnings in the early 1920s, and served a one-year term on its executive starting in 1927. For his services, Nathan was appointed a CBE in 1926 and created a Knight Bachelor in the

1928 New Year Honours The 1928 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on 30 December 1927. Unusually, only women we ...

Parliament and later life

Following the death of Athelstan Saw in November 1929, Nathan was endorsed as one of three Nationalist Party candidates at the resulting by-election for the Legislative Council's Metropolitan-Suburban Province. There was also one "independent Labor" candidate. His campaign was strongly endorsed by the ''Mirror'', a now-defunct Perth newspaper, which branded him "the man who gave something for nothing". He went on to poll 34.38% on first preferences, and was eventually elected with 52.57% of the two-candidate-preferred vote. In 1931, following the resignation of Sir Norbert Keenan from Cabinet, Nathan was regarded as a contender to replace him in the ministry, though this did not eventuate. Completing the remainder of Saw's six-year term, he announced his retirement from the Legislative Council in December 1933, and was replaced at the 1934 election by another Nationalist candidate,

Hubert Parker Hubert Stanley Wyborn Parker DSO VD (16 October 1883—26 July 1966) was an Australian politician who represented the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of North-East Fremantle from 1930 until 1933, and one of the three Legisla ...

."Upper House Elections"
''The Daily News'' (Perth, Western Australia), 12 May 1934. Nathan died in Perth in 1936, having suffered from cerebrovascular disease for several years. He had married Mary Bessie Lichtenstein in 1898, with whom he had a daughter (who predeceased him) and two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nathan, Charles 1870s births 1936 deaths Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Australian corporate directors Australian Knights Bachelor Australian people of English-Jewish descent Burials at Karrakatta Cemetery Jewish Australian politicians Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Western Australia Politicians from Melbourne Western Australian local councillors 20th-century Australian politicians