page_title: Matthew Charlton
section_title: Final years
hierarchical_section_title: Matthew Charlton / Final years
caption_attribution_description: English: Matthew Charlton MHR, c. 1928
context_page_description: Matthew Charlton was an Australian politician who served as leader of the Labor Party from 1922 to 1928. He led the party to defeat at the 1922 and 1925 federal elections.
  Charlton was born in Linton, Victoria, but as a child moved to Lambton, New South Wales. He left school at a young age to work in the coal mines, initially as a hurrier. Charlton became prominent in the trade union movement, and in 1903 was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the Labor Party. He switched to federal parliament in 1910. Charlton was an anti-conscriptionist, and remained with Labor after the party split of 1916. He was elected party leader in early 1922, following the death of Frank Tudor. As Leader of the Opposition, Charlton increased Labor's vote in 1922 but suffered a backwards slide in 1925. He resigned as leader in early 1928, succeeded by James Scullin, and left politics later that year.
context_section_description: Following retirement from federal politics, Charlton took an interest in local government and became an alderman on the Lambton Council from 1934 to 1938 (before its merger with the City of Newcastle). He died at Lambton, New South Wales, on 8 December 1948, the place where he had grown up and lived most of his life.  Charlton was buried in the general section of Sandgate Cemetery. Martha Charlton died on 8 June 1955 and is interred with him. Their sons Matthew and Percy predeceased both of them.
  The Division of Charlton in the Hunter Region was named in his honour, and was a safe Labor seat from its creation in 1984 until its abolition in 2016.
caption: Charlton in 1928
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