People Australia

Charlie Frazer, by Sarony Studio, 1900s

National Library of Australia, 23397710

Charles Edward (Charlie) Frazer (1880-1913) engine-driver, trade union official and parliamentarian

Birth: 2 January 1880 at Yarrawonga, Victoria, son of James Bannerman Frazer (1840-1906), a farmer, born at Whittingham, New South Wales, and Susannah, née Atkinson (1838-1916), born at Wharton, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Marriage: 31 August 1904 at St Peter’s Anglican Church, Melbourne, to native-born Mary Ellen Rosanna Kinnane (1882-1963), a clerk. Death: 25 November 1913 at Melbourne, Victoria. Religion: Anglican. 

• Educated to primary school level, he then took up farming.
• Moved to the Western Australia about 1896. Worked at loco shops at Fremantle, then on construction of Southern Cross to Kalgoorlie railway. When the WA Government took over the line he transferred to government service.
• He obtained a qualified mining engine-drivers first class certificate. Leaving the railways, he became a mine engine-driver at Kalgoorlie and president of the Boulder Enginedrivers’ Association.
• In November 1902 he was elected secretary of the Kalgoorlie Trades Hall Council. A leader in Friendly Society work, he was also president of the Boulder branch of the Australian Natives’ Association and a member of Kalgoorlie City Council from 1901 to 1903.
• Frazer was elected Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Kalgoorlie on 16 December 1903. An honorary minister in Andrew Fisher’s Labor government in 1910-1911 he was Postmaster General from October 1911 until the government was defeated in May 1913. He was re-elected unopposed to parliament that month; he died in office.
• Cause of death: pneumonia. 

Sources
Joan Rydon (ed), A biographical register of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901-1972 (ANU Press, 1975); Australian Worker (Sydney), 27 November 1913; Worker (Brisbane), 4 December 1913.