Researching John Carter

Carter was the son of Major Charles Carré Carter (1850–1888) of the Royal Engineers. He was educated at Wellington College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Having passed out as Queen's Cadet, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant into the Indian Staff Corps on 28 July 1900. He served in Waziristan in 1901–1902 and was seconded to the Indian Police Service in Burma in 1905. He was promoted Lieutenant on 28 October 1902, and Captain on 28 July 1909 (by which time he was serving with the 35th Sikhs). In the First World War he served as a GSO2 (staff officer) on the Imperial General Staff, reaching the rank of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel and being mentioned in despatches twice. In 1915 he married Gwendolyn Marjorie Georges; they had a son, Captain John Ralph Carré Carter, and a daughter, Joan M. Carter.

He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1919, although he did not formally retire from the army until 1921. He worked for the Directorate of Intelligence, where he was Assistant Director under Basil Thomson. He was then appointed Deputy Assistant Commissioner on 24 October 1922. In 1933 he took command of No.2 District (North-West London), based at Paddington.

In 1923, Carter was made a Cavalier of the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus by the King of Italy. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1925 Birthday Honours.

Carter died in Tavistock, Devon, aged 62.

Born on the Black River, near Camden, in what is now Kershaw County, South Carolina, Carter graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1811. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1814. He commenced practice in Camden, South Carolina. He served as commissioner in equity from 1814 until 1820.

Carter was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventeenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Blair. He was reelected as a Jackson Republican to the Eighteenth Congress and as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth and the Twentieth Congresses and served from December 11, 1822, to March 3, 1829.

He resumed the practice of law in Camden and moved to Georgetown, D.C., in 1836. He died there on June 20, 1850.

Carter joined the Navy in January 1798, serving aboard the 28-gun in the Mediterranean. In July Brilliant had a narrow escape from two French 44-gun frigates off Santa Cruz. He then moved aboard as a midshipman, and took part in the blockade of Malta. On 30 March 1800 Penelope was one of the ships that intercepted and aided in the capture of the French 84-gun Guillaume Tell. He then took part in the campaign in Egypt, followed by service in boat actions off the French and Genoese coasts.

Carter served for a time aboard under Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson, and in February 1805 Nelson transferred him into an acting-lieutenancy aboard the 74-gun . Admiral Lord Nelson awarded him with his sword and telescope for distinguished service under his command. Carter then took part in the pursuit of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet to the West Indies during the Trafalgar Campaign. He returned with the British fleet and took part in the Battle of Trafalgar, where his service involved securing the prisoners and destroying the prizes. He was back in the West Indies by late 1806, where he navigated the badly leaking back to Britain, fothering her hull with sails and with the pumps manned all throughout the voyage. He captured the 14-gun Emille off St Valery in February 1814. He was promoted to post-captain on 7 December 1815, and went on to become superintendent of the Royal Hospital Haslar after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

Carter was Superintendent of the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard between December 1841 and December 1846, and was promoted to rear-admiral on reserved half-pay on 8 April 1851. He was promoted to vice-admiral on 9 July 1857 and admiral on 4 October 1862. Admiral John Carter died on 2 April 1863 at Devonport.

Carter was the third editor of the Christadelphian after the founding editor Robert Roberts and his successor Charles Curwen Walker. He was the first editor of the magazine to be an employee of the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Association (CMPA), which Walker had established before his death to ensure a stable continuation. For most of the period 1937 to 1962 Carter worked to promote a broader range of content in the magazine, more outreach publications, and set in motion a series of New Testament Commentaries of which he himself wrote several volumes. In 1938 he was the representative of the church in front of military tribunals.

He was born at Taungoo in Burma to police chief George Markham Strange Carter and his wife Augusta Laura. Following the early death of his father he was raised by his grandparents in England, where he attended Bloxham College. In 1912 he migrated to Australia and worked as a jackeroo near Brewarrina. From 1914 to 1919 he served with the Australian Imperial Force in the 7th Light Horse Regiment. He was at Gallipoli and also served in Palestine; he had the rank of lieutenant and was awarded the Military Cross. After the war he was a soldier settler, taking land at Gobarralong and later adding property near Gundagai. On 6 March 1924 he married Jean Margaret Weston, with whom he had three daughters. In 1950 he retired from farming to live in Sydney. A long-time member of the Country Party, he served on the central council from 1945 to 1971 and the central executive from 1949 to 1971; he was chairman of the executive from 1952 to 1957. From 1955 to 1968 he was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Carter died at Hornsby in 1971.