Charles Humphrey

DEATH NOTICE: see the Cape Archives, MOOC 6/9/1926, No 544. OBITUARY: see the Daily Dispatch, 17.2.1921.

Charles Kennedy Humphrey was born in Port Elizabeth in 1849 and moved to East London in 1896 where he established himself as a forwarding and commission agent with his office in Cambridge Street.

He was also an accountant and auditor, wool merchant, estate agent and manager of the London and Lancashire Life Assurance Company. For a time he was the market master at East London.

During the Boer War he served with the East London District Mounted Troops and in 1907 became a Justice of the Peace for the town.

Humphrey entered the Town Council in February 1896 as a representative for Ward 4 but resigned in October that year. He stood against Edmund Elton in July 1900 after Alfred Webb had resigned but the election was declared null and void because neither of the candidates had paid his rates.

He won the re-election in August but was unseated by John Bisseker in February 1901. He won back Bisseker's seat in August 1903 and was re-elected unopposed in February 1904 and 1907 but resigned soon thereafter.

Humphrey died on 16 February 1921 at the age of 72, and was buried at East London.