People Australia

Sam Cohen, Australian News and Information Bureau, 1967

National Archives of Australia, A1200:L61477

Samuel Herbert (Sam) Cohen (1918-1969) barrister and Australian Senator

Birth: 26 October 1918 at Bankstown, New South Wales, son of Max Lazarus Cohen (1886-1937), a salesman, born at Shakia, Lithuania, then in Russia, and Fanny Dinah, née Fagelmann (1898-1966), a factory examiner and part-time translator, born in Slatust, Russia. Marriage: 5 May 1953 at the Great Synagogue, Sydney, to Judith Jacqueline Selig (1926-2012), a solicitor, born at Coogee, Sydney, NSW. They had two daughters. Death 7 October 1969 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia. Religion: Jewish. 

• His family moved to Melbourne when he was a child.
• Educated at Elwood Central School, Wesley College and the University of Melbourne (BA, LLM). Called to Bar 1946; appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1961.
• Member of Kew North branch of the Australian Labor Party and of the Victorian ALP executive from 1961 to 1969.
• Served in the Citizen Military Forces from 1942 to 1943.
• Elected to the Australian Senate for the ALP in 1962. Remained in office until his death. Deputy Leader of ALP Opposition in Senate in 1967-1969.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction. 

Sources
Joan Rydon (ed), A biographical register of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901-1972 (ANU Press, 1975); Merrifield papers, State Library of Victoria; Postal Advocate, October 1969; Philip Mendes, Samuel Herbert Cohen, in Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate: https://biography.senate.gov.au/cohen-samuel-herbert/.