Dr. Bill Charlton was born in 1926, in Geelong in Victoria, where his father was a Spathe.

Charlton's family came from strong Scottish stock, and this was always a strong influence on his life. When he was 10 yrs old, they moved to Randwick in Sydney, then to Maclean on the Clarence river,-where he first learnt to play the bagpipes. After initial schooling at Grafton, he went to Sydney Grammar. He then began medicine as a student at St. Andrews College in 1943 where he did the long 6 year course. He was then a RMO at Royal North Shore, then at the Children's hospital He then spent 2 years at Royal Newcastle as a senior resident , finishing at the end of 1952.

He describes his happy years at the Royal, and greatly enjoyed the comradeship and teaching -he had always wanted to be a GP like his father, and finally squatted in Charlestown -an uncommon scenario in those days .There he built up an enormous general practice, seeing up to 50 patients a day, and at his peak, doing 140 confinements a year .For a long time he was on his own, but later was helped by his father, and later still by Dr. Paddy Lightfoot, Roger Bradbury, Bob Porter[who later went into administration] then John Hollingsworth.

The practice covered an enormous area, from Redhead through Windale, Charlestown and other adjacent suburbs -there were an enormous number of house calls and night calls, and the home telephone went constantly in those early years. The practice was the first to develop a coordinated office system under the tutelage of Bruce Foster, the efficiency expert who revolutionised the systems at Royal Newcastle - the practice was the first to have a radiotelephone link with the surgery, in the days before mobile phones-and when many people did not have a telephone.

Holidays were few and far between, and usually at places no further away than Toronto !! Bill Charlton was one of the first GP clinical lecturers in the new medical school, and contributed an enormous amount of his time to tuition in the early years.

An unusual feature of this CD is an interview with Jean, Bills wife who trained at the Royal in the days of Matron Hall and who gives an insight into the world of Nursing in the early 50s-and who was probably the first of the generation of wives who became official practice managers. Listening to this record explains why the doctors of that generation were so highly regarded by their patients, and also why the lifestyle was so stressful -and unsustainable in the long term.