Charles Cameron Kingston - 2015 Inductee

A lawyer, politician and footballer, Charles Cameron Kingston was Premier of South Australia and one of the founders of the South Adelaide Football Club, calling the meeting which resulted in the Club's formation in 1876.

Thereafter, his ongoing connection with the club for many decades was prodigious. He was elected as the club's secretary and continued to play football for the first two seasons. He served as association delegate, club chairman and was president of South Adelaide for 30 years until his death in 1908.

He was awarded the club's first Life Membership in 1886.

Kingston was present at the meeting held to establish the South Australian Football Association in 1877. At that time, there were several football clubs conducting an informal competition using a variety of rules. Kingston established a committee "to confer with the various Football Clubs to find their ideas about the role of the proposed Association and the rules they want to play by." Kingston's insistence that a player should not be able to run with the ball without bouncing it led to the Melbourne rules being adopted otherwise football may ultimately have evolved into rugby in this State.

South Adelaide Football Club won the first ever South Australian Premiership in 1877 with Kingston being a playing member of this team.

Kingston's career as a Lawyer, Politician and Statesman was equally significant. He was elected to State Parliament in 1881 aged 30 years, served as Attorney General and became Queens Counsel in 1889. He became Premier of South Australia in 1893 and was appointed a Privy Councillor in 1897. He was Chairman of the Federal Convention held during 1897-98. He travelled to London in 1900 with Colonial Premiers Deakin and Barton to oversee the passage of the Commonwealth of Australia Bill through the Imperial Parliament. Widely tipped to be the first Prime Minister of Australia, he was instead appointed as the first Federal Minister of Trade.

The Federal seat of Kingston is named in his honour as is the South Adelaide Football Club's Vice Presidents group, the Kingstonians.