The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Topp, Charles Alfred
Topp, Charles Alfred, M.A., LL.B., F.L.S., is third son of the late Samuel Topp, and was born at Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in 1847. He went to Victoria with his parents in 1853, and after attending the Church of England Grammar School, under Dr. Bromby, graduated at the Melbourne University in 1868. In the following year he took the M.A. and LL.B. degrees, and gained the law scholarship. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar, but did not practise, being appointed Inspector of Schools, and in 1884 Superintendent of the Training Institute and principal of the Training College. In 1886 he was elected Warden of the Melbourne University Senate. Mr. Topp took an active part in the foundation of a chair of biology at the University, and the establishment of degrees in science. Recently he was appointed by the Government to report, in conjunction with the Inspector-General of Schools, on the system of State education in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. He was a contributor to the Melbourne Review, of which his brother, Mr. A. M. Topp, the well-known Melbourne journalist, was one of the founders and joint editors. In 1890, on the reconstruction of the Board of Public Health in Victoria, Mr. Topp was appointed chairman, and in the same year he was elected a member of the Council of the University of Melbourne.