People Australia

Leslie Hunkin, c.1926

State Library of South Australia, 78560307

Leslie Claude Hunkin (1884-1984) shop assistant, trade union official, parliamentarian and public service commissioner.

Birth: 10 January 1884 at George Town, Tasmania, son of Joseph Hunkin (1862-1942), a mine manager of Cornish ancestry born at Moonta, South Australia, and Elma Blanche Isherwood, née Edwards (1863-1943), born at St Kilda, Victoria. Marriage: 6 August 1910 at the office of the Registrar General, Adelaide, South Australia, to native-born Myrtle Florence Evans (1888-1977), They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 8 September 1984 in Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, SA; usual residence Masonic Hostel, Somerton Park. Religion: Anglican. 

• Educated at state and private schools and at a technical institute in Tasmania.
• Moved to South Australia in 1907 and was employed in a warehouse in Adelaide.
• Secretary of the Shop and Warehouse Employees Union.
• Moved to Victoria for a period and returned to Adelaide to open a furniture business, Hains Hunkin Ltd.
• He was general secretary of the Public Service Association from 1922 to 1929.
• Member of the House of Assembly for East Torrens from 1921 to 1927. Contested East Torrens 1927. Contested Legislative Council Central No. 2 in 1918 (for Labor).
• Member, advisory committee on state finance. He was Public Service commissioner in SA in 1930-1949. Member, Forestry Board SA, 1930-1976.
• Deputy director, Manpower South Australia, from 1942 to 1946.
• Appointed CMG in 1945.
• Cause of death: bronchopneumonia (2 weeks).