An airman used magic to escape from a POW camp, but his grandfather was even more amazing as perhaps the most controversial politician in Queensland history. I told a version of this story on Darling Downs radio 4AK.
The airman was Group Captain Cedric Hill. He was born at Maryvale just outside of Warwick. He studied to be a magician before the First World War, served with the Royal Flying Corps, was shot down and captured. He then used his conjuring skills to escape from his Turkish prisoner of war camp.
He remarkably escaped – just like his grandfather did from a controversial parliamentary career not too many years earlier.
Charles Henry George Carr Clark was born in Van Diemen’s Land or Tasmania in 1832. In 1861 he settled on the Darling Downs, where he and his brother George Clark established a successful sheep farm on the Old Talgai station. They were credited with introducing the paddock system in Queensland to replace shepherding.
The brother George was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly to represent Warwick in 1867, but lasted only a year which probably delighted him because he hated it.
Charlie won the seat back for the family in 1871 which produced some of the most remarkable scenes in Australian political history.
On Friday the 4th of August 1871, around 2,000 people gathered around the Warwick courthouse to hear the outcome of the election. At 5.30pm the returning officer mounted the hustings and declared the numbers – the incumbent James Morgan 265 votes and Charlie Clark 282. It was a narrow victory to Charlie, but because Morgan’s name was called first, his supporters began celebrating, but when it was heard that Charlie had won, things turned nasty.
George, on behalf of his brother, said a few words of thanks, and was hoisted upon the shoulders of supporters and carried into the street, but they were followed by an angry mob. A melee broke out as George was pulled off the shoulders of supporters, kicked and punched. Charlie’s supporters were knocked down and kicked, some had to be rescued and dragged into a nearby hotel or flee for their lives, others showed some fight until they were knocked senseless by rocks. Two were thrown down, kicked, and dragged until they were almost dead.
By about 8.30pm the mob was armed with palings and bombarding with rocks the hotel where Charlie’s supporters were held up. The mob was on the veranda about to demolish the place when someone in there fired a gun. More shots were fired and several people were wounded, one man was shot in the jaw, another two in their hands. From 5.30 to 11 o’clock that night it was not safe for a supporter of Charlie Clark to be seen on the streets. The police could do nothing with only four constables against the riotous mob.
In any case, Charlie took his seat in parliament, but it took only five months before Charlie was again in it, up to his whiskers at parliament house in Brisbane.
On Tuesday the 10th of January 1872, Queensland’s first attorney-general Ratcliffe Pring repeatedly interrupted a speaker in the parliament. Charlie interjected to complain about Pring’s offensive remarks and proceeded to make insulting comments himself. Abuse was exchanged and the parliament descended into an uproar.
Pring then performed an unprecedented act when he pulled Charlie’s whiskers, challenged him to go outside to settle it, and then raced out of the chamber unable to be caught. The Speaker issued a warrant for Pring’s arrest, but Pring resigned and fled to Dalby in a bid to escape justice.
Charlie’s parliamentary career came to an end the following year when James Morgan, whose supporters had rioted two years earlier, regained the seat. Pring was also re-elected. Charlie’s daughter Maria married George’s son George Junior, they were first cousins. Charlie moved to Tenterfield where he died, and so was lost to Warwick and Queensland forever.
If you look at a photo of Charlie Clark it would be very tempting to pull his whiskers, they are impressive. And what a remarkable parliamentary career he had, with a full-on street riot and an assault by the attorney-general. And he escaped it all unscathed, much like his magician grandson come the First World War.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON 4AK.
Photo credits:
Whiskers, Wizards, and the Wildest Election in Queensland – Harold Peacock with Copilot.
Group Captain Cedric Waters Hill – Sunday Mail, Brisbane, 9th June 1940, page 6 – repaired with Copilot.
Charles George Henry Carr Clark – Queensland Government.
James Morgan – State Library of Queensland.
Parliament House, Brisbane, Queensland c1869 – State Library of Queensland.
Ratcliffe Pring – State Library of Queensland.
Charles George Henry Carr Clark, Tenterfield Cemetery – John Vaughan-Jenkins 2021 via Find a Grave website.
History Out There 