Father and son Charles Marques and Charles Albert Marques enlisted in the AIF together at Morphettville on 26th September 1914. Charles snr was 45 and claimed to be an “architect and concrete expert”. Strangely, his place of birth was on “a coast guard cutter at Harwich”, and his tattoos suggested an early nautical background. It is not known when he arrived in Adelaide. He married Ellen Haines at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral on Wakefield Street in 1894, but wrote C. of E. as his religion on the enlistment forms. The name Marques is of Portuguese origin.
Charles jnr was 18 and a student at Sturt Street school. Born in the inner Adelaide suburb of Norwood in 1896, he had played soccer for Sturt reserves in the 1914 season just completed.
Both father and son would serve for five years in the army medical services. Initially both were together in the First Stationary hospital in Egypt and a short time at Gallipoli. Charles snr then served with the Third Auxiliary hospital in England, whilst Charles jnr was in the 14th Field Ambulance in France.
In early 1919 they both were given non-military leave and worked together on a construction project in the east London docks. It would seem that Charles snr’s job description on his enlistment form was not just hype, because he was “brought to the notice of the Secretary of State for valuable services rendered”.
Charles Marques and Charles Albert Marques both took their discharge from the AIF in England in late 1919, and did not return to Australia. They set up a concrete construction company which Charles Albert developed into a major design and manufacturing concern. CU Phosco today is still run by Marques descendants and recently expanded into Australia. They manufacture lighting towers for stadiums, motorways etc. Charles Albert was known to have a passion for photography, and apparently took many pictures during his war service. There is a photo of him holding an early movie camera on the Phosco website.
Charles Albert Marques MBE died in England in 1967.