Max Poulter

Maxwell William Poulter (22 January 1913 – 2 September 1962) was an Australian educator and politician. He held degrees from the University of Tasmania and Columbia University, including a doctorate in education from the latter. He was a high school teacher and later lectured at the University of Tasmania and University of Queensland. He had a long involvement with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was elected as a Senator for Queensland at the 1961 federal election, after two previous unsuccessful candidacies. He was unable to take his seat and died in 1962 two months after the start of his term.

Early life Poulter was born on 22 January 1913 in Devonport, Tasmania. He was the son of Cinderella Ismay (née Bowden) and William Poulter, his father being a storeman and produce agent. He was educated at Devonport Primary School and Devonport High School, leaving school in 1930.

Poulter became a probationary student-teacher in 1929 while still at high school and returned as an assistant master in 1936. He began studying at the University of Tasmania in 1931 and graduated Bachelor of Commerce (1937), Bachelor of Arts (1940), and Diploma of Education (1946). During World War II he joined the reserve of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Poulter worked in Tasmanian state high schools at Devonport, Hobart, Launceston and Burnie. He was vice-principal of Ogilvie High School in 1945. He was cremated at Mount Thompson Crematorium.

The ALP nominated the unsuccessful candidate, Alf Arnell, to replace Poulter; however, he was rejected by the Queensland Legislative Assembly. The ALP then nominated George Whiteside who was appointed.

Personal life Poulter married Tasmanian schoolteacher Peggy Wilhelmina Mead in 1941, with whom he had a son and a daughter. He was divorced in 1953 and in 1954 married American film editor Barbara Goodman (née Baxter), with whom he had another two daughters.