Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean was born in Bathurst on 18 November 1879 and grew up in Bathurst until 1898 when he moved with his family to England. His father, Edwin Bean, was the principal of All Saints College, Bathurst and was also a priest. From 1889 to 1898, while living in England, Charles attended several schools including Brentwood, Clifton College, and Hertford College. In 1898 he was fortunate enough to win a scholarship to Oxford where he was able to study the classics, one of his loves. Charles was a conscientious student who graduated with honors and went on to study law. In 1904 Charles Bean returned to Australia, sailing into Sydney Harbor full of hope for his next adventure and was soon accepted into the New South Wales Bar. As a lawyer, Charles Bean decided to start his own firm. During the process of setting up his practice, however, he began writing articles for the 'Evening News', a newspaper edited by 'Banjo' Paterson and worked as an assistant at the Sydney grammar school. It was around this time that Charles Bean realized that he preferred writing and teaching to law. In 1908, Charles Bean had been appointed junior reporter for "The Sydney Morning Herald". After several successful articles, showcasing his ability to write "Big Stories", Bean was assigned as a special correspondent for the Royal Australian Navy to report on the impending visit of sixteen American warships, known as the Great White Fleet. He would later write a book about his findings that included all of his photographs, drawings and watercolors. In mid-1914, as war approached, Charles Bean was given the task of writing a daily piece on the growing crisis in Europe. This soon led to him becoming the official... center of the paper... Bean became the founder of the Parks and Playgrounds Movement of New South Wales. He found himself going off on a tangent by participating in the Town Planning Association, working to create a city that resembled the countryside. Although Charles Bean was often described as a modest man, he described himself as shy and was said to have admitted that he was "too conscious of mixing well with the great mass of men". He even declined knighthood on more than one occasion. It was no secret that he was held in high regard for his bravery during the war, and his commitment to his writings during the war, and was once described by his long-time assistant, Arthur Bazley, as one of the best men he had ever known. Charles Bean died on August 30, 1968 at Concord Repatriation Hospital after being admitted there in 1964 with failing health.