Charles Tucker (20 February 1857 – 5 December 1928) was

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

from 1894 to 1898 and a member of the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...

for the seats of Encounter Bay and

Alexandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...

. Born at

Walkerville, South Australia Walkerville is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It lies just north east of the city centre, about from the Adelaide GPO. Walkerville is one of South Australia's most affluent suburbs and in 2012 it was South Australia's second "top earnin ...

, Tucker was a mayor of

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

. He was associated with the shipping agents Graves & Co. and Malpas & Co. as well as a variety of mining firms such asF. Ayers, Blades, Gall, Scandinavian mine at Purnamoota, Euriowie, Teetulpa, Newcastle mine, Thackaringa Copper mine and Balhannah goldmining company. He was the owner of Trinity Moonta Mine.The Mayor of Adelaide
Adelaide observer, 8 December 1894, p. 16, col. d Tucker was a member of the Assembly for Encounter Bay (29 April 1899 to 6 July 1899 and 29 July 1899 to 2 May 1902) and Alexandra (3 May 1902 to 2 November 1906). :"On 12 February 1907, as customs agent for John Martin & Co. Ltd, Tucker was found guilty of having defrauded the Customs Department during the 1890s of duties payable on goods imported by the firm. His brother and nephew were also implicated. The amount involved approached £33,000 of which Tucker's share had been about £2,000 a year for more than a decade. Tucker was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour; the Observer cautioned against 'the pretensions of smooth-tongued and clever individuals of gentlemanly address and suitably captivating manners'. It had been South Australia's longest criminal trial: there were 97 witnesses and some 8,000 exhibits, and the case ran for 31 days." More sensational details of his private life were published by the Kalgoorlie Sun.

References

catalog search "Charles Tucker"
State Library of South Australia
catalog search "Charles Tucker 1857 1928"
State Library of South Australia Mayors and Lord Mayors of Adelaide People educated at Adelaide Educational Institution 1928 deaths 1857 births Australian fraudsters Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Colony of South Australia people {{AUS-crime-bio-stub