People Australia

Charles Vine, n.d.

Charles Boniface Vine (1828-1915) carpenter, trade union official and government inspector of works.

Birth: 16 March 1828 at Islington, London, England, son of Thomas Walter Vine (1797-1882), builder, and Jane, née Thompson (1899-1887). Marriages: (1) 10 April 1853 at St Mary’s, Islingon, to Maria Brine (1830-1864). They had two daughters and three sons. Their eldest daughter died in childhood and a son died in infancy. (2) 1892 at Napier, New Zealand, to Charlotte, née Hill, late Chatfield (1843-1892), born at Chute, Wiltshire, England. Death: 13 June 1915 at Watkin Street, Gonville, Wanganui, New Zealand. Religion: buried with Anglican rites. 

• Following his parents and siblings, arrived in Victoria with his wife and infant daughter aboard the Joshua on 28 September 1854.
• As gold miners, he and his father found themselves amidst ‘the pandoric excitement and the Bacchanalian debaucheries of a digger’s life’.
• Returning to Melbourne (Fitzroy), both father and son were prominent in Melbourne labour circles throughout the 1850s-1860s.
• In 1856 Thomas organised the first meeting of carpenters in Melbourne. He and Charles established in April 1856 the Melbourne Progressive Society of Carpenters and Joiners.
• Charles was inaugural secretary of the 8 Hour Movement in Victoria in 1856.
• Charles moved to New Zealand about 1861. He worked as a contractor and was government inspector of works.
• Cause of death: senile decay (3 years) and cardiac failure (1 day).

Sources
Merrifield papers, (State Library of Victoria); W.E. Murphy, History of the eight hours’ movement, volume 1, 1896; Labor Call, 5 August 1915; The Carpenter and Joiner, November 1963; Oamaru Mail (New Zealand], 24 May 1912, p 6.