Charles Edward Frazer (2 January 1880 – 25 November 1913) was an Australian politician. He served in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 1903 until his death from pneumonia in 1913, aged 33. He was

Postmaster-General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a Ministry (government department), ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having ...

in the second Fisher Ministry.

Early life

Frazer was born on 2 January 1880 at Pelluebla, a rural locality south of

Yarrawonga, Victoria Yarrawonga is a town in the Shire of Moira local government area in the Australian state of Victoria. The town is situated on the south bank of the Murray River, the border between Victoria and New South Wales, and is located approximately ...

. He was named after "Bonnie Prince Charlie",

Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...

. He was the youngest of nine children born to Susannah Atkinson and James Frazer. He had three older brothers and four older sisters, with another sister dying as an infant. His mother was born in Melbourne, while his father was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Scotland, and arrived in Australia in 1852 during the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capita ...

. Frazer grew up on his father's property of , where the family lived in

wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung a ...

huts. He received his only formal education at the Pelluebla South State School, a

one-room school One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and s ...

that had become overcrowded due to the large size of families in the area. At one stage his father received a fine for keeping the children home from school to work on the farm. The property was subjected to several years of drought and locusts in the early 1890s, and the Frazers also experienced financial difficulties caused by the banking crisis of 1893. By 1895, the family was preparing to move to

Mulwala, New South Wales Mulwala (locally , elsewhere also ) is a town in the Federation Council local government area in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia. The town is situated on Lake Mulwala, an artificial lake formed by the damming of the Murra ...

, located opposite Yarrawonga on the other side of the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

. Frazer was unwilling to move with them, having come to dislike the monotony of farm work. He made up his mind to move across the country to

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 ...

, where gold had been found two years earlier; as a child he had been fascinated by his father's recollections of the 1850s gold rush. He arrived in

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 ...

a few months after his 15th birthday, travelling via

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. After arriving in Western Australia, Frazer did not travel on directly to the goldfields but instead took up an apprenticeship with the

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

at the Fremantle Railway Workshops. He joined the Locomotive Drivers', Firemen's and Cleaners' Union, and after starting in the engine sheds progressed rapidly through the ranks, becoming a

fireman A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also a ...

after only a few months. He subsequently worked on the extension of the

Eastern Goldfields Railway The Eastern Goldfields Railway was built in the 1890s by the Western Australian Government Railways to connect Perth with the Eastern Goldfields at Coolgardie, Western Australia, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. History The Eastern Railway, Wester ...

from

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for c ...

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

. Frazer settled in Kalgoorlie's twin town

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

after the line was completed. He qualified as a locomotive

engine driver A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

in 1899, aged 19, and joined the Certified Engine Drivers' Union. He subsequently worked at the Hannan's Star and Boulder Perseverance mines, and occasionally as a driver on the Kalgoorlie–Boulder loop line. He invested his earnings in part-ownership of a Boulder hotel. Frazer was elected as president of his branch of his union in 1902 and secretary of the Goldfields Trades and Labor Council in 1903. In August 1904 he married Mary Kinnane.

Municipal politics

In November 1902, Frazer was elected to Kalgoorlie Municipal Council.

Federal politics

Electoral record

In September 1903, Frazer won ALP

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 ...

for the

Division of Kalgoorlie The Division of Kalgoorlie was an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia, named after the city of Kalgoorlie. The Division was proclaimed in 1900 as one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first feder ...

, defeating two other candidates. The incumbent member

John Kirwan John Kirwan may refer to: * John Óge Kirwan (fl. 1530–1531), mayor of Galway * Sir John Kirwan (1650–1721), Irish entrepreneur * John Kirwan (cricketer) (1816–1899), English cricketer * John Kirwan (politician) (1869–1949), Australian ...

was a Free Trader sympathetic to the labour movement. He had won a large majority at the inaugural 1901 election and had the support of the ''

Kalgoorlie Miner ''The Kalgoorlie Miner'' (commonly known as ''The Miner'') is a daily newspaper circulating in the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Goldfields-Esperance region, in Western Australia. It is published Monday to Saturday by Hocking & Co. Pty L ...

'' and ''

Western Argus The ''Western Argus'' was a newspaper published in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, between 1894 and 1938. It had three different names over time: * ''Western Argus'', 1894-1896 * ''Kalgoorlie Western Argus'', 1896-1916 * ''Western Argus'', 1916- ...

''. Kirwan's popularity may have contributed to the smaller number of candidates for ALP preselection, as he was widely expected to win re-election. According to his friend

Richard Crouch Richard Armstrong Crouch (19 June 1868 – 7 April 1949) was an Australian politician. His two periods as a member of the House of Representatives (1901–1910, 1929–1931) were separated by the First World War, during which he became an anti- ...

, Frazer's campaign was bankrolled with his poker winnings, which included a win of £1,000 in a single night (). The Kalgoorlie electorate occupied the south-eastern portion of Western Australia, with most of its population concentrated in Kalgoorlie and Boulder. In the lead-up to the federal election scheduled for 16 December, he began his campaign in the coastal hamlet of Hopetoun, subsequently travelling by ship to Esperance and then riding north to

Norseman The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pre ...

by bicycle, a five-day journey. His official policy speech was made in Kalgoorlie on 7 November, and included support for

White Australia The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...

, protectionism,

compulsory arbitration Compulsion may refer to: * Compulsive behavior, a psychological condition in which a person does a behavior compulsively, having an overwhelming feeling that they must do so. * Obsessive–compulsive disorder, a mental disorder characterized by i ...

, old-age pensions, and

direct taxation Although the actual definitions vary between jurisdictions, in general, a direct tax or income tax is a tax imposed upon a person or property as distinct from a tax imposed upon a transaction, which is described as an indirect tax. There is a dis ...

of the wealthy. Kirwan's campaign suffered from a lack of organisation, which contrasted with the pre-existing ALP and union branches that lent their support to Frazer. At the election, the ALP recorded a large swing throughout Western Australia, winning all three

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

seats and four out of five seats in the

. Frazer defeated Kirwan by nearly 3,000 votes, polling almost two-thirds of the total. After his initial success, Frazer was re-elected with an increased majority at each subsequent election. At the 1906 election he was opposed by William Burton, the mayor of Esperance, on behalf of

John Forrest Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister i ...

's newly formed

Western Australian Party The Western Australian Party (WAP) was a short-lived Australian political party that operated in 1906. It was intended as a liberal party to protect the rights of Western Australians and to oppose the increasingly successful Labor Party, and dr ...

. This had been established as an attempt to harness regionalist and secessionist sentiment to provide a unified organisation behind anti-Labor candidates in Western Australia. However, Burton "swiftly repudiated the party label and spoke in favour of radical policies at meetings which, as he had no organisation, hardly anybody attended". Frazer won a majority of over 5,000 votes and 79 percent of the overall vote, the largest proportion of any candidate nationwide. His margin at the 1910 election increased to over 8,000 votes and 81 percent of the total, again making Kalgoorlie one of the safest seats in the country. His

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

opponent John Thornett's first campaign meeting was infiltrated by Frazer supporters and turned violent. Thornett was assaulted and hospitalised for several days, after which he withdrew from campaigning. According to , "Frazer and the Labor Party had become so popular on the goldfields that it was dangerous to oppose them". In a redistribution prior to the 1913 election, population decline 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 ...

led to the Coolgardie electorate being abolished and split between Kalgoorlie and the new seat of Dampier. The incumbent ALP member for Coolgardie,

Hugh Mahon Hugh may refer to: *Hugh (given name) Noblemen and clergy French * Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks * Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II * Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...

, was defeated in Dampier, but Frazer retained the enlarged Kalgoorlie constituency unopposed.

Backbencher

In parliament, he studied law in order to improve his leadership skills, campaigned successfully for the Labor parliamentary caucus to select the ministry when in office and for Labor to stop supporting

Protectionist Party The Protectionist Party or Liberal Protectionist Party was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1887 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. The party advocated protective tariffs, arguing it would allow Australi ...

governments. Following Labor's success at the 1910 election, he served as honorary minister in the Second Fisher Ministry. In 1911, he acted as

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

for several months while Fisher attended the

1911 Imperial Conference The 1911 Imperial Conference convened in London on 23 May 1911 and concluded on 20 June 1911. It was held to mark the occasion of the coronation of King George V on 22 June 1911. The conference discussed Empire-wide constitutional arrangements w ...

and

coronation of George V The coronation of George V and his wife Mary as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and as Emperor and Empress of India, took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Thursday 22 June 1911. This was the second of fou ...

Frontbencher

In October 1911 he was appointed

. Frazer worked closely with

Douglas Mawson Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader during ...

to assist in the success of the

Australasian Antarctic Expedition The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was a 1911–1914 expedition headed by Douglas Mawson that explored the largely uncharted Antarctic coast due south of Australia. Mawson had been inspired to lead his own venture by his experiences on Ernest ...

. Mawson needed the support of the department in respect of postal mail from

Cape Denison Cape Denison is a rocky point at the head of Commonwealth Bay in George V Land, Antarctica. It was discovered in 1912 by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–14) under Douglas Mawson, who named it for Sir Hugh Denison of Sydney, a pa ...

and

Macquarie Island Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 197 ...

. The expedition was the first to make provision for wireless telegraphy but the range was considered likely to fall short of the Australian mainland and Mawson sought and obtained the moving forward of the establishment of the Hobart wireless station to ensure the communications link. He was a strong supporter for a uniform stamp for all of Australia, which was still using the old colonial (now state) issues. His first issue, now known to philatelists as the

Kangaroo and Map This is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of Australia. Postal history The six self-governing Australian colonies that formed the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901 operated their own postal service and issued th ...

series, was designed by

Blamire Young William Blamire Young (9 August 1862 – 14 January 1935), commonly known as Blamire Young, was an English/Australian artist who painted primarily in watercolour. Biography Early life Young was born at Londesborough, Yorkshire, the second son ...

and issued in 1913 Beginning in 1911, Frazer suffered from frequent bouts of ill health. He caught influenza while in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

in April 1913, and while campaigning a few weeks later suffered a relapse which developed into

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

. He was confined to hospital in Leonora for a week, taking another three weeks to fully recover. Frazer spent the day at

Flemington Racecourse Flemington Racecourse is a major horse racing venue located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is most notable for hosting the Melbourne Cup, which is the world's richest handicap and the world's richest 3200-metre horse race. The racecou ...

on 22 November and awoke the following morning with what he believed was a slight cold. He was subsequently examined by a doctor and found to be suffering from severe pneumonia of the left lung. He was taken to a private clinic where he died on the morning of 25 November, aged 33. He was granted a

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of Etiquette, protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive ...

and buried beside his mother at

Melbourne General Cemetery The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large (43 hectare) necropolis located north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North. The cemetery is notably the resting place of four Prime Ministers of Australia, more than any other nec ...

Andrew Fisher Andrew Fisher (29 August 186222 October 1928) was an Australian politician who served three terms as prime minister of Australia – from 1908 to 1909, from 1910 to 1913, and from 1914 to 1915. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party ...

George Pearce Sir George Foster Pearce KCVO (14 January 1870 – 24 June 1952) was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1901 to 1938. He began his career in the Labor Party but later joined the National Labor Party, t ...

, Josiah Thomas,

Joseph Cook Sir Joseph Cook, (7 December 1860 – 30 July 1947) was an Australian politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1913 to 1914. He was the leader of the Liberal Party from 1913 to 1917, after earlier serving ...

, and

Agar Wynne Agar Wynne (15 July 185012 May 1934) was an Australian lawyer and politician. He began his career in the Victorian Legislative Council and served two terms as Solicitor-General of Victoria. In 1906, he transferred to the federal House of Repres ...

served as pall-bearers.