Charles Powers

Who was Charles Powers?

Sir Charles Powers KCMG, Australian politician and judge, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1913 to 1929.

Powers was born in 1853 in Brisbane, Queensland. He was educated at Ipswich Grammar School and Brisbane Grammar School captaining the Schools First XI. He was a talented sportsman, and at one point captained a state cricket team against a touring English side. After completing his articles of clerkship, Powers was admitted to practise law as a solicitor in 1876, after which he moved to Bundaberg to practise. In 1878, he married Kate Ann Thorburn, whose father was a solicitor from Victoria. Powers continued to work in Bundaberg until 1882, and in 1883 became the mayor of Maryborough.

In June 1888, Powers was elected to the Parliament of Queensland as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for Burrum. On 19 November 1889, Powers became Postmaster-General and Minister for Education in the ministry of Premier Boyd Dunlop Morehead, and he held these positions until resigning with his colleagues in August 1890. In 1891 he was a member of a Royal Commission which was established to investigate the possibility of establishing a university in Queensland.