Charles Bean

Journalist, historian

Died when: 88 years 286 days (1065 months)
Star Sign: Scorpio

 

Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean (18 November 1879 – 30 August 1968), usually identified as C.E.W.Bean was an Australian historian.He is considered one of Australia's most distinguished men of letters and one of Australia's most distinguished and influential historians.

He was Australia's official war correspondent, subsequently its official war historian, who wrote six volumes and edited the remaining six of the twelve-volume Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918.

Recognised as the founder of the Australian War Memorial (AWM), no other Australian has been more influential in shaping the way the First World War is remembered and commemorated in Australia.

Charles Bean was many things – school master, barrister, judge's associate, journalist, author, war correspondent, historian, poet, patron of art, founder of the Australian War Memorial (AWM), key figure in the development of Australia's national archives, visionary, social reformer, public intellectual, moral philosopher, conservationist, and advocate for education and for place planning especially for green open spaces for the well-being and health of the community.

Viewed as a whole man, Bean was essentially a moral philosopher which appears to have informed everything he wrote.He had a life-long concern with 'character'.

His capacity for personal growth was one of his most important attributes.A fascinating, complex, other-directed, self-motivated man of high principle, Bean grew in generosity of spirit, and universal understanding, as he matured.

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