WHILE his schooldays didn’t foster a passion for history, countless hours researching the story of World War I soldiers from Chiltern has given Ian Charlton a burning desire to know more.
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“I hated history at school,” Mr Charlton said.
“Every year was the same we learned fact after fact about kings and queens that meant nothing to us.
“So much of it was detail but we didn’t get any of the background, why they did the things they did.”
Now a medical scientist Mr Charlton first started volunteering at the Chiltern Athenaeum Museum 21 years ago.
It was the late president Rex Fuge who convinced Mr Charlton to get involved.
“I never wanted to go into the museum but I remember having plenty of conversations with Rex on the footpath out the front,” he said.
“I don’t remember how Rex finally convinced me to get involved but I started reading the microfilm copies of the Federal Standard.”
First published in Chiltern in 1859, the Federal Standard has provided Mr Charlton with a wealth of information unavailable elsewhere.
Through it he has been able to catalogue the history of gold, health, education, social events, law and order and a variety of topics relating to Chiltern.
He has read all copies of the paper from 1859, through to the first half of 1861.
From his research he created a data base to track the names of people who worked, lived or just passed through Chiltern.
“During the height of the gold era there were about 20,000 people in the Chiltern district,” he said.
“Sometimes there is just a small mention of someone in a paper and that is the only trace we have of them being here.
“I think anyone who has been here has been important to the development of the town.”
Again it was a suggestion from the president that helped him change tack about two years ago to work on finding information about the 350 names that are listed on the official Chiltern Shire honour roll from World War I.
He has 700 names of people associated with Chiltern and the war.
Along the way he has discovered many inaccuracies in the official honour rolls, which has fuelled his desire to learn more.
“You keep on discovering things and that leads to other adventures,” he said.
“I have found there are people listed on the roll who never went to the war.
“There is even one fellow who is listed as killed in action but I know he didn’t go as he died and is buried here.
“You rarely find an honour roll which is not full of mistakes.
“I thought I would knock over the research into the World War I honour roll in no time but I keep on finding things that have been left off or others that should not be there.
“I think there was a bit of town rivalry when the honour rolls were being produced and there are a lot of inaccuracies of who remembered who going to the war.
“You just never know what you are going to discover until you go and have a good look and if you find a fault in the records that makes it even more exciting.”
His passion for history has led him to develop cemetery tours with a difference.
Rather than focusing on the births and deaths of predominantly well-known people of the town he looks for a quirky character to talk about to capture the human side of history.
“I use history to educate and entertain people,” he said.
“I like to go into ordinary people’s lives and tell stories about what happened to them.
“Everybody has done something worth remembering you just have to find it.”