unknown Launceston Tasmania Australia Edith Mary Chidwick Hilda & Samuel

Charles Edwin Beaufoy was born in Charlton, Kent, England, in 1869. His parents were Samuel and Mary A Beaufoy. His three older brothers are also pictured in this Album. Charles was a bass in the Tasmanian Exhibition Choir in 1891-92. He was a student at the Launceston Technical School at that time and exhibited a carved chiffonier of original design.

He returned to England and married Edith Chidwick in 1896 at Dover. In 1901 Charles was a builder and undertaker, living at 35 High Street, Dover with his wife and two young children, Hilda and Samuel, and a 14 year old domestic servant. During the First World War he was elected mayor, awarded an OBE and appointed chief magistrate. At the outbreak of the Second World War he became chief special constable. In 1941 he was blown from his bicycle when a shell exploded close to him. He was blinded and incapacitated in other ways but after months in hospital he returned to his work on the Bench and served on local committees. Charles was 73 years of age, but was determined to learn Braille and to lead the Victory March at the end of the war.

Marion Sargent Dec 2006 & Peter Beaufoy Mar 2008