Charles Bateson (4 August 1903 – 5 July 1974) was a maritime historian, journalist and author.

Early life

Charles Henry Bateson was born in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, son of Charles Bateson, a company manager born Liverpool, England, and mother Alice Lowe, née Rossiter, from Wales. He was educated at Hurworth school,

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

, before migrating to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 1922.

Career

Journalist

Charles Bateson worked as a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

for a number of Australian papers. He worked for newspaper proprietor Ezra Norton's "Truth and Sportsman Ltd" becoming a talented administrator and lead writer for the Sydney ''

Truth Truth or verity is the Property (philosophy), property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth, 2005 In everyday language, it is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise cor ...

'' and Melbourne ''

''. After Norton's newspapers were taken over by News Ltd Bateson became editorial manager of Mirror Newspapers Ltd, before helping launch ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'' newspaper.

War correspondent

Working for the Department of the Interior during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

first as a publicity officer and then as principal information officer, he later became a war correspondent. It was during this time that he met two pilots in London with whom he collaborated in writing two of his early works as a writer: ''Spitfires over Malta'' (1943) and ''First into Italy'' (1944).

Author

After his journalistic career Bateson pursued his interest in writing particularly in the maritime history of Australia and the Pacific. He was editor of ''The Log'', the official journal of the Australian and New Zealand branch of the World Ship Society between 1958 and 1966. Bateson's greatest success came with the publication of ''The Convict Ships 1787–1868'' (first published 1959). Containing a comprehensive list of convict transports to the Australian colonies between 1787 and 1868 this remains the standard reference work of its type, an indispensable tool especially for those researching

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...

ancestry. Another publishing success came with ''Australian Shipwrecks'' (1972). Bateson completed the first volume in what was to be a six volume series of books on maritime disasters in Australia. After his death the series was completed by Jack Loney. Bateson bequeathed his collection of 1300 books and his personal papers to the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

List of works

* ''Spitfires over Malta'' (1943) * ''First into Italy'' (1944) * ''The Convict Ships 1788–1868'' (1959) * ''Gold fleet for California: forty-niners from Australia and New Zealand'' (1964) * ''Patrick Logan – tyrant of Brisbane Town'' (1966) * ''The War with Japan: a concise history'' (1968) * ''Early sailor'' (1968) * ''Early soldier'' (1968) * ''Early surveyor'' (1970) * ''A Chartmaker'' (1972) * ''A Gold commissioner'' (1972) * ''Australian Shipwrecks v1: 1622–1850'' (1972) * ''Dire Strait: a history of Bass Strait'' (1973)

Personal life

Shortly after arriving in Australia, Bateson met and married journalist Coy Catherine Foster-Lynam on 27 August 1923 at St Peter's Anglican Church East Sydney. Bateson pursued his interests in military, naval and maritime history throughout his life particularly in retirement and was a member of the Royal Australian Historical Society. Bateson died of coronary vascular disease at

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

on 5 July 1974, survived by his second wife Ann and daughter Louise of his first marriage.