Albert Augustine "Bert" Edwards

Albert Augustine "Bert" Edwards

The Kingston Family - Flinders Unitversity - South Australia

Before entering politics he held various jobs as a stall keeper, marine store dealer and hotel keeper, eventually holding licences for the Brunswick Hotel, the Newmarket Hotel on North Terrace and the Hotel Victor at Victor Harbor. He took over the British Lion Hotel in Hindmarsh.

In 1961 he endowed a men's refuge in Whitmore Square; in 1963 he purchased the adjoining property as a rehabilitation centre for prisoners, named the Frank Lundie Hostel for his friend and colleague the secretary of the South Australian branch of the Australian Workers' Union. He contributed generously to a meal centre run by the Daughters of Charity in Hutt Street.

He died in 1963 without any heirs. His considerable assets were left to charities for the homeless and destitute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Edwards_(politician)

BERT EDWARDS REMEMBERED

Our tribute to Ralph McLean in Bulletin 43 prompted an ALGA member to remind us that in a very different era, Bert Edwards (1888-1963) was re-elected to public office in 1948 having served a prison term with hard labour 1931-33 for a homosexual offence, amidst much public scandal. For more about Bert Edwards' extraordinary life, see his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Adelaide writer and activist Ian Purcell wrote a play about Bert Edwards' prosecution, King of the West End, which was performed in Adelaide in 2008. With the benefit of the National Digitisation Program, it is now possible to readily see press coverage of Bert Edwards' life - eg from Trove newspaper search on "Albert Augustine Edwards" (make sure the words are in double quote marks). One sample, the Adelaide Advertiser's report of the jury verdict on 14 February 1931

ALGA bulletin 25 January 2011 No. 45

Between the wars Edwards drove a large Studebaker car. He dressed in white suits, with Hamburg hat, bow tie and suede shoes, favouring silk pyjamas and gold-tipped cigarettes. One arm was tattooed with a heart. His dark, curling hair, parted in the middle, framed a large hooked nose over a receding chin. Following his death, on 24 August 1963 and a requiem Mass at St Francis Xavier's Cathedral, his body was embalmed and buried at West Terrace cemetery in a copper casket. His estate, divided among Adelaide's poor, was sworn for probate at £45,942.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/edwards-albert-augustine-6092