Tribute to a tribune

By Bernie Rosen The death of Charlie King, a Rationalist speaker at the Sydney Domain for nearly 34 years, leaves a gap in the intellectual life of our community that will be hard to fill. Charlie took over the platform from his illustrious predecessor Frank Barnes who rendered incalculable service to the cause of scientific education and rationalism. Charlie was a self-educated man who had acquired considerable erudition on a range of subjects. He employed his oratorical ability to campaign constantly for the cause of world peace. During the Vietnam War, Charlie, Pastor Arthur Neville and myself organised three Domain speakers' peace rallies. Charlie was an ex-serviceman who fought the Japanese in Papua New Guinea during WWII. Like Frank Barnes, he encouraged and trained new public speakers and organised a forum at the Florence Bartley Hall every Sunday night. The best tribute that I can pay my friend Charlie King is that he served Australia well in both war and peace. I join his many friends in expressing my condolences to Mrs King, his son Raymond and family.

From GLW issue 210