Charles Henry Layman (4 June 1865 – 23 March 1926) was an Australian 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 1904 to 1914, representing the seat of Nelson. Layman was born in Wonnerup (a rural locality near

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

) to Amelia Harriet (née Curtis) and

George Layman George Layman was born at Wonnerup House in 1838 and resided there until his death on 13 December 1921. His father, George Layman, was fatally speared by a local Wardandi Noongar warrior referred to as Goewar, also spelt as Gayware, Gaywal or G ...

. His father was also a member of parliament, as was a cousin, Ernest Locke. Layman attended The High School 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 ...

, and after leaving worked for the

W.A. Timber Company W.A. Timber Company was a syndicate of Victorian investors granted a timber concession of 181,500 acres on Geographe Bay in the south west of Western Australia in 1870. The company went on to develop a mill and jetty at Lockville, north-east o ...

for two years before going into farming. From 1888, he kept a store in Greenbushes, which supplied the nearby tin mine. Layman served on the Greenbushes Road Board from 1898 to 1904, including as chairman for a period.Charles Henry Layman
Biographical Register of Members of the Parliament of Western Australia. Retrieved 26 June 2016. He entered parliament at the 1904 state election, winning the seat of Nelson as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. Layman switched to the Ministerialists prior to the 1905 election, where he was re-elected with an increased majority. He was again comfortably re-elected in 1908, but in 1911 won only narrowly, defeating a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

candidate by just 54 votes on the

two-party-preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

count. Layman retired from parliament at the 1914 election, and died in

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the capital and largest city of Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Island ...

in March 1926, aged 60. He had married Florence Edith Reynolds in 1893, with whom he had five sons and three daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Layman, Charles 1865 births 1926 deaths Independent members of the Parliament of Western Australia Mayors of places in Western Australia Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly People educated at Hale School People from the South West (Western Australia) Western Australian local councillors Colony of Western Australia people