People Australia

Charles Lamp, 194?

National Library of Australia, 25009523

Charles Adcock Lamp (1895-1972) blacksmith, trade union official and Australian senator

Birth: 3 September 1895 at Hobart, Tasmania, son of Johan (John) Frederick August Lamp (1863-1948), German navy storeman (who deserted his ship and settled in Adelaide then Tasmania), and Rosina, née Fewkes (1866-1947), born in Hobart. Marriages: (1) 27 December 1921 at the Catholic Church of the Apostles, Launceston, Tasmania, to Mary Evangeline Ahearn (1894-1966). They had one daughter and two sons. (2) 21 June 1968 at Launceston, to native-born May Josephine, née McDonald, late Currie (1905-1987). Death: 17 April at 1972 at Hobart, Tasmania. Religion: Anglican. 

• Educated at state school, Queenstown. Joined Amalgamated Miners Union in 1908, later Federated Mining Employees Union and Australian Workers’ Union.
• Apprenticed to Gurr & Sons shipwrights, Launceston. Worked as a blacksmith and railwayman.
• Having previously served in the 92nd Infantry, A Company (Band), he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 28 January 1916. Served as a sapper, with the 9th Field Company Engineers in France, and was wounded in action on 19 June 1918. Returned to Australia in 1919 and was discharged on 22 July.
• Rejoined Railway Service in 1919. President of the Locomotive Division, Australian Railways Union (ARU) in 1923-1924. State president ARU Loco Division from 1925 to 1927 and secretary from 1928 to 1936. Editor of new monthly Union Journal ARU Gazette (Devonport) 1928.
• Secretary of Launceston Trades Hall Council (THC) in 1926. President and trustee of Launceston THC in 1927-28. Vice-president Eight-Hour Committee, Launceston, in 1927, president in 1928.
• Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union Launceston sub-branch. Secretary of the Workers’ Educational Association, Mowbray branch, and life member. Member of the Social Credit Association, Launceston, from 1931. General Secretary of the Australian Labor Party, Tasmania, from 1935 to 1939.
• Elected to the Australian Senate in 1937. Was defeated in the 1949 election.
• After leaving parliament he was secretary of the Hospital Employees Union, Fire Fighters Union and Furnishing Trades Union. Board member, Launceston Hospital, for twenty-five years. President of Bass Divisional Campaign Committee of the ALP. Life member of the ALP.
• He was a son-in-law of James McDonald, member of the Legislative Council (Tasmania) and brother-in-law of J. R McDonald, member of the House of Assembly (Tasmania).

Sources
Joan, Rydon (ed), A biographical register of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901-1972 (ANU Press, 1975); Merrifield Card Index, State Library of Victoria; The Voice (Voice of Labor, Tasmania); Electrical Trades Journal, 23 November 1937; Richard Davis, ‘Charles Adcock Lamp’, Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate: http://biography.senate.gov.au/lamp-charles-adcock.