Charles Riley

The Right Rev Charles Lawrence ‘Tom’ Riley was a son of Archbishop C O L Riley, the inaugural Warden of Convocation of UWA. Tom arrived in WA with the family in 1895. He took Holy Orders in 1912 at Caius College Cambridge and his additional university qualifications were MA and LLB (Cantab) and later DTheol from the Australian College of Theology.

He was a Junior chaplain in Palestine for a year and a half during the First World War at the time when his father was Chaplain General. On his return to Perth he served in several parish positions in Western Australia, including North Perth.

C L Riley was elected Warden of Convocation for the period 1932 to 1934. He was then Archdeacon in Northam before being appointed Bishop of Bendigo in 1938, a position he held until 1957.

For the early years of World War Two (1940 to 1941), he was a senior chaplain and then became the Chaplain General of the AIF from 1942 until 1957.

Returning to Perth Riley once again stood for and was elected Warden of Convocation between 1958 and 1961. As Warden endeavoured to promote the desirability of an Honour Board for those who fell in World War Two. The motion was proposed to the Senate seeking its assistance, but in effect it was returned to Convocation with the suggestion that it should complete such a task. There seemed not to be the energy or the available funds to fulfil the desire, which was a disheartening outcome for the Warden who had seen the War from a different and personal standpoint.

Riley was awarded OBE (1920) and CBE (1942). He was a keen philatelist and assembled a significant study of the famous WA stamp, the Fourpenny Blue lithograph which he donated to the State. It is held by the WA Museum.

Photograph from AWM 02345
Ericson, Rica Dictionary of West Australians Vol 5 UWAP; West Australian 6 April 1940; UWA Archive Convocation Minutes 1958-1961