You mightn’t recognise his face, but you’ll never forget his writing.

 

You mightn’t recognise his face, but you’ll never forget his writing. 

Charles Bean didn’t just record history, he was part of it.

Bean shadowed the Australian Imperial Force from 1914, when he accepted the position of being the country’s sole war correspondent. 

Bean recognised that the Great War had the potential to reshape the world and, in the process, the young Australian nation, and that his official account would document this transformation.

‘I want it to be the truest history that ever was written,’ he declared. 

Yet even though Bean searched for ‘absolute’ truth, he still interpreted events subjectively. His main bias was toward the men he was chronicling: he believed that Australians represented the best of the British race and had inherent qualities, such as bravery and natural fighting instincts. 

As the Great War progressed, Bean became increasingly torn between his duty to maintain morale back home and his desire to report on the waste of human life. It resulted in him recording a ‘public’ and ‘private’ account of the war. 

On the Somme, Bean became more scathing in his diary with each failure. He believed that the AIF had ‘broken itself’ in repeated battering attacks. Bean’s diary entries filled 286 volumes. His notes were jotted down almost daily, irrespective of whether he was tired or half asleep. 

Bean began writing the official history on Armistice Day, 1919, working seven days a week. And every day that passed, he knew that ‘history’ was slowly slipping away from him. ‘Men’s memories fade. The chief actors die,’ he explained. 

When Bean published his final volume in 1942, he had produced one of the most comprehensive histories ever written. He detailed 6550 soldiers in it.

Yet Bean’s Official History was largely a concise tome of facts, figures, names, and places. It was, without doubt, true to its title of ‘official’. 

Bean’s real literary masterpiece was his diary: fresh and full of unguarded opinions and observations. 

There was probably never an Australian who held higher hopes and aspirations for his country than Charles Bean.

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