Charlie Mutton

Charles Mutton (14 September 1890 – 13 May 1989) was an Australian politician.

Charlie Mutton
Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Coburg
In office 1 July 1940 – 1 March 1967
Preceded by	Frank Keane
Succeeded by	Jack Mutton
Leader of the Progressive Labor Party
In office 9 October 1950 – Late 1955
Councillor of the City of Broadmeadows for Campbellfield Riding
In office 1925–1953
President of Broadmeadows
In office 1947–1948
In office 1934–1935
Personal details
Born	Charles Mutton 14 September 1890 North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died	13 May 1989 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Political party	Labor (1908–1940; 1956–1989)
Other political affiliations	Blackburn-Mutton Labor (1947–1950) Progressive Labor (1950–1955)

He was born in North Melbourne to tobacco worker Charles Mutton and Mary Ann Moloney. He attended Catholic schools and from 1903 to 1910 worked for Excelsior Barbed Wire and Nail Works. In 1911 he became an ironworker, and in August 1914 he married Annie Maria Peachey, with whom he had four children. In 1908 he had joined the Labor Party, and in 1917 he became founding president of the Fawkner branch. In 1930 he inherited his father's poultry farm, and also became president of the Iron Founders' Union. He was a Broadmeadows Shire councillor from 1925 to 1953, serving twice as president (1934–;35, 1947–48).

In 1940 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in a by-election for the seat of Coburg; for running as an Independent Labor candidate, he was expelled from the Labor Party. He and another expelled Labor federal politician Doris Blackburn founded the Blackburn-Mutton Labor Party (BMLP) in 1947, which then became the Progressive Labor Party (Victoria) in 1950.^[1] In June 1956 he was re-admitted to the party, and he served until his retirement in 1967, when he was succeeded by his son Jack. Mutton died in Melbourne in 1989.^[2]