Charles Baxter

Charles Farquharson Baxter (20 May 1874 – 2 March 1950) was an Australian politician who was a Country Party member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia from 1914 until his death. He was a minister in the governments of Henry Lefroy, Hal Colebatch, and James Mitchell.

Early life Baxter was born in Croxton East, Victoria (near Hamilton), to Mary (née Barnes) and Patrick Duncan Baxter. He came to Western Australia in 1896, initially working as a butcher in Albany. He later worked as a telegraph linesman, an agent for a bicycle company, and as the director of an insurance company. Baxter eventually purchased a farming property near York.

Politics Baxter first attempted to enter parliament at the 1911 state election, but was defeated by Frederick Monger in the seat of York. At the 1914 Legislative Council elections, he was elected to East Province for the Country Party, replacing the retiring Thomas Wilding. He would be re-elected in 1920, 1926, 1932, 1938, and 1946, on each occasion unopposed.

He had married Jessica Minnie Millsom in 1896, with whom he had five children. One of his sons, Norman Eric Baxter, won the by-election occasioned by his death, and later also became a government minister. His oldest daughter Dorothy became an aerial acrobat on the early biplanes and later married WWI ace Paul McGuinness, who later started Qantas.