BIO

Charlie Chandler played for three clubs in his first three years of senior football.  Two decades later, as a muckraking journalist, he was jailed for six months for libel.  

Born in 1861 at the Victorian gold mining settlement of Pleasant Creek, now the town of Stawell, Charlie came to Adelaide as a boy from Warrnambool.

He began his football with South Adelaide in 1881, switched to Victorians in 1882 and immediately tasted success when he moved to Norwood in 1883.

Norwood defeated Port Adelaide 5.22 to 1.7 in the decisive match at Kensington Oval for its sixth flag in a row. Charlie was named one of the principal players that day along with captain 'Topsy' Waldron, 'Jammie' Watson, Alf Roberts, Joe Pollock, Tom Letchford, George Bragge and Harry McNamara.



Norwood that season won 12 matches, lost three and drew one, but its run of success had come to an end. Charlie impressed with his smart runs and good kicking as Norwood finished second in the next three seasons.



He was rated among the best backmen in 1884 and later shared following duties with Waldron  before becoming one of the most noticeable wingmen in the competition. 'Goalpost' wrote in The Adelaide Observer in 1885 that he was "very much struck with the great improvement in Chandler's play".


Chandler finished 1885 as Waldron's vice captain, after Bragge returned to Victoria, and was named deputy to new captain Alf Roberts at the start of the 1886 season. That was as good as it got for Charlie. When Adelaide unexpectedly secured the premiership by crushing Norwood 6 goals to 0, The South Australian Advertiser said that Norwood's "(Fred) Letchford and Chandler were the failures of the day".



Charlie retired after that and, like so many other players of the time, turned to umpiring.



He also sharpened the kicking skills of a young fellow called Percy Stuart. To make Percy's kick for goal precise, Charlie placed him some distance away in his yard and taught him to kick the ball so it would go through an open door of the loft.  "Boots" Stuart became a Norwood sharpshooter in the 1890s.

Charlie was a boxer and all-round athlete. In junior cricket, he took all 10 wickets for 31 runs while playing for the Adelaide Young Men Second XI against the Cambridge XI in 1886.  In 1888 he and another Norwood footballer, George Donnithorne, played  for the Willyamas in Broken Hill under the captaincy of Albert Tomlin.

Charlie entered the newspaper world as a compositor with the Hamilton Spectator and then at Broken Hill as a sub-editor of the Silver Miner.  He was editor of the Port Pirie Standard until July 1893 when he became bankrupt.  He next published the scandalous East Torrens Eagle at Norwood in 1893 but was again bankrupt. He published the Free Press between 1894 and 1895 and the Free Lance from 1896 to 1900.  

In 1901 Charlie was jailed for libel and fined £50 after he published an article in the Free Lance and Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette suggesting that one night while encamped in Adelaide the Boer War 5th Contingent had entertained 23 women and a young girl in their tents.* 

In 1903 he worked for Quiz, which was co-founded by his brother Alfred.  From 1903 to 1907 he was the publisher of the Adelaide Truth, which was sold to Reginald Solomon and eventually to John Norton of the Sydney Truth and Sportsman. He wrote paragraphs of social, theatrical and sporting commentary, in satirical tone, for the Critic.  About 1907 he published an exposé of Adelaide’s dark side, Darkest Adelaide.

Claiming to be 44, Charlie enlisted for World War I service on 15 January 1916 and was a private in the 43rd Battalion AIF when he returned to Australia on 17 March 1917.  He listed Harriett as his wife. In 1922 he is said to have published a newspaper called The Diggers with Vardon and Sons.

Charlie was 75 when he died at Maylands SA on 31 July 1936. He is buried in the Mitcham General Cemetery.

*The Advertiser Thursday 20 June 1901 p 7

 P. Robins May 2017, M Giles February 2026