AUSTRALIA:THE BODY of an Australian politician who was notorious for his sexual indiscretions has been exhumed a century after his death as part of a paternity case.
Charles Cameron Kingston, who was premier of the state of South Australia between 1893 and 1899, gave women the right to vote, established a state bank and was a leading figure in the federation movement.
The Adelaide-born lawyer, described in a biography as being "six feet tall and possessed of tremendous strength", was also an inveterate womaniser, known for having numerous affairs.
He and his wife Lucy adopted a son, Kevin, that he had fathered with another woman, and Kingston was alleged to have produced other illegitimate offspring.
A larger-than-life character, who was once arrested by police holding a loaded revolver after he challenged an opponent to a duel and who turned down the chance of a British knighthood much to the despair of his wife, was tipped as a future prime minister, but retired from politics because of ill health. He died in 1908.
The present paternity case involves an unnamed Adelaide businessman and his sister who believe they are related to one of the illegitimate children fathered by Kingston. They successfully applied to the attorney general's department earlier this year for permission to exhume the body. The DNA testing being carried out on the remains is being conducted for "personal and historic reasons", the businessman told the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper.
DNA samples were taken in March and tests will be carried out in Adelaide, then independently verified abroad.
- (Guardian service)