The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Cohen, Hon. Edward
Cohen, Hon. Edward, was born in London in 1822, and landed with his parents in Sydney, N.S.W., in 1833. In 1842 he came to Melbourne, and, after a successful career as an auctioneer, was elected a member of the city corporation in Nov. 1860, and an alderman in 1865, He was Mayor of Melbourne in 1862-3, and in the following year was elected to the Assembly for East Melbourne, which he continued to represent until his death. Mr. Cohen was Commissioner of Trade and Customs in the Macpherson Government from Sept. 1869 to April 1870; and again in the Francis Administration from June 1872 to July 1874. Mr. Cohen, who was regarded as the head of the Jewish community, married, in 1847, the eldest daughter of the late Moses Benjamin, J.P., and died in March 1877.