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Charles Truelove (1850 – 1909)Charles Truelove was born at Somers Town, London, the son of John Truelove, (butcher) and Ann (nee Williams).Charles St George Truelove was a boy soprano in the St. George’s Chapel choir at Windsor Castle, England. Blessed with an “angelic face and a sweet childish voice”, young Charles was a personal favourite of Queen Victoria who would often request a private audience. That was until his voice broke.He was subsequently apprenticed to an art furniture dealer in London and around 1879, Truelove was assigned to accompany a consignment of furniture to Australia. The ship sank off the coast of Africa and somehow Truelove continued his journey to Australia.He found work with the Musgrove Opera Company in the clothing department. Later he joined the Soldene Comic Opera Company as a designer. That was until he fashioned a sensation by producing costumes for the female performers that were provocatively tight fitting. Then he returned to his first love and achieved some success as a choirmaster organising groups to mark large occasions. He was the choirmaster at both St Kilda & South Yarra Anglican Churches and also trained the Prahran Masonic Choir.Charles Truelove also trained the original choir for St Paul’s Cathedral from All Saints St. Kilda. The St Paul's Cathedral Choir is noted as one of Australia's foremost choral ensembles. From the day in January 1891 when it proudly sang at the Cathedral's official opening, it has aspired to lift up the hearts and minds of all who listen.In March 1883, the trustees of the St. Kilda Cemetery decided to appoint a secretary- manager, a position that would allow them to delegate day-to-day managerial decisions. And so, the story goes, “some good friend decided that Charles would make a good manager for a cemetery”.It may be that his position as choirmaster with All Saints’ (Anglican) Church, Chapel Street, St. Kilda had something to do with his appointment. Regardless, it was an unusual decision by the trustees to appoint an incumbent with limited business experience at a time when available space for some denominations was scarce and talk of the impending new Metropolitan Cemetery being established that would affect the future of St. Kilda.Immediately after Truelove’s appointment, the cemetery funds increased dramatically. From a balance of just £888 in 1881 a decade later it had reached £6,274. This was the era of the ‘land boom’ when the rush to be rich brought about spectacular paper profits. From thereon it reached a high of £7,179 in 1895 before declining as the Trust carried out capital works, the highest amount spent totalling £2,721 in 1896.Truelove achieved this significant increase by taking an entrepreneurial approach.Not just was Truelove able to increase the credit balance, he also introduced the sounds of music to the cemetery by enlisting the gravediggers who responded by singing with zest, much to the acclaim of the public.One of Truelove’s initiatives was the establishment of a nursery within the cemetery in which he held a share. The nursery would provide a new source of income to fund the maintenance of the cemetery when the new Metropolitan Cemetery would force the closure of St. Kilda. This scheme continued for a few years until 1896 when the government ordered it to be closed after the Crown solicitor formed the view the trustees were acting outside of their powers.This did not stop Truelove from using his share to open “The Sunbeam Nursery” opposite the cemetery on Dandenong Road. Around the same time that the Cemetery Trust decided to establish a cemetery nursery, a decision was made to branch into grave maintenance and decoration in direct competition with monumental masons. The trust contended that “persons who undertook such work gave scant satisfaction.” Besides, they argued, the Cemeteries Act empowered trustees to keep “every grave, vault, monument, cenotaph, wall fence, or other erection” in proper order. And so a works area in the cemetery grounds was established for this purpose.Not everyone warmed to the Truelove charm and by the mid-1890’s things began to unravel. Complaints from aggrieved letter writers would find their way in the daily press. In 1895, one writer ‘Pro Bono Publico’ complained against exorbitant fees which could be reduced if the trustees had not “thrown away money in lavish expenditure”. As another writer asked, “why is all the money spent on the nursery, building hot-houses, fernery, glass houses, wagons, coach houses, and manufacturing all kinds of material?”In 1896, no sooner had “The Sunbeam Nursery” been established than the company directors felt there was sufficient public demand for cemetery kerbing and later, monumental work. The “Adamant Grave Moulding and Maintenance Company Proprietary Limited” was formed and another branch was added to existing services of plant supplies. By then Truelove had remarried a widow, Marie Elizabeth Goode nee Broadbent (1865- 1944, Necropolis Springvale). She bore two daughters: Kathleen Marie (Kit) (1897 - 1982; married Louis Herry, 1920) and Winifred Ida (1902 - 1980; married Louis Hall, 1929). Marie Truelove and the extended Broadbent family were placed in charge of the company.In 1905, the local monument mason Hubert Tope of “Tope & Dear” would provide a written statement to the local member of Albert Park, George Elmslie MLA. In Parliament, Elmslie would allege that the trustees “did pay for a large amount of materials, such as bricks, cement, paint and c., which was used for the secretary’s wife’s firm without their paying for the same…” and the trustees paid the firm “£50 for plants which are still lying at the cemetery, and are not worth 50s”.There was also Truelove’s long time nemesis and Tope’s business partner Nathaniel Dear. As far back as March 1883, Dear ran foul with the trustees. This led to a long running saga of antagonism that culminated in an action of libel. In May 1897, Dear sued Truelove alleging slander. The statement which Truelove admitted was “interpreted by Dear to imply that he [Dear] had obtained money by false pretences and had been guilty of fraudulent and improper practices”. Dear sought £249 in damages, but the Truelove charm continued in the courts and Dear lost the libel.Tope and Dear were behind a number of deputations calling for a board of inquiry into the cemetery when it was found that Truelove had established “The Sunbeam Company” in questionable circumstances. Dear was a prolific letter writer to the local St Kilda Council complaining of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions within the cemetery. Truelove would dismiss these complaints from “unprincipled petty tradesmen…seldom found among educated gentlemen” who gained “cheap advertisements” from the publicity.When the long-running debate on the location of the new Metropolitan Cemetery at Springvale was finally settled, the sale of new gravesites was discontinued at St. Kilda Cemetery from 1 January 1901, effectively closing the cemetery. But Truelove was able to get around these provisions. One method was “to issue certificates to employees of the cemetery… for which they paid nothing and then persuade them to transfer said graves to…”Adamant Monumental Company“ for £1, the price of the ground to the public being £6 6s”.Another method used was the issuing of some 1,000 blank rights of burial signed by the trustees and back dating these (the trustees later denied signing blank deeds). To legitimise these burials, a special variation of the Discontinuance Order was required in 1906 to cover burials up to 15 December 1905, a few days before Truelove made haste and fled to avoid giving evidence at an inquiry ordered by the trustees (a warrant was issued for his arrest, but he managed to get away due to a police bungle).At the official board of inquiry held late in 1907 to investigate four specific matters, allegations were made by David Winbanks, an employee who stated “several times when digging a new grave, came across coffins and bones” and was told by Truelove to “throw it out”. In 1906, Elmslie said in Parliament that the trustees knew “that there were improper practices going on”, but refused to investigate the allegations “that had since been proved”, that Truelove “was selling the graves and…he was taking bodies out of graves and burning [in the hot-house furnace] the coffins and bones of people who had been interred in them previously”.Charles Truelove did eventually return to the cemetery, but this time to rest in peace; he died suddenly at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital from diabetes and heart failure on 1 September 1909 aged 59 and was buried in a grave that ironically appears to have been double sold (OD “C” 15A).