Portal:New South Wales/Selected article/07, 2008



Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean (November 18, 1879 – August 30, 1968), usually known during his career as C.E.W. Bean, was an Australian journalist, war correspondent and historian who is renowned as the editor of the 12-volume Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918. Bean wrote Volumes I to VI himself, dealing with the Australian Imperial Force at Gallipoli, France and Belgium. Bean was instrumental in the establishment of the Australian War Memorial, and of the creation and popularisation of the ANZAC legend.

Bean was born in Bathurst, New South Wales and his family moved to England in 1889, where he was educated, winning a scholarship to Hertford College, Oxford. He returned to Australia in 1904 and worked as a lawyer until June 1908 when he joined The Sydney Morning Herald as a reporter.