Charlie Moore (Australian rules footballer) explained

Charlie Moore
Fullname:Walter Charles Moore
Birth Date:24 September 1875
Birth Place:Colony of Fiji
Death Place:Kwaggashoek Farm,
Orange Free State (now South Africa)
Originalteam:Albert-park (VFA)
Debutdate:Round 9, 1897
Debutteam:Essendon
Debutopponent:Collingwood
Debutstadium:Victoria Park
Statsend:1899
Years1:1897–1899
Club1:Essendon
Games Goals1:30 (34)
Careerhighlights:

Walter Charles Moore (24 September 1875 – 12 May 1901) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Albert Park and South Melbourne in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) and for Essendon in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He served as a trooper in the Anglo-Boer War, but died of wounds after a battle.

He was the first Fijian-born player in the VFL/AFL and the first VFL player to die on active service in any war.[1]

Private life

The third son (the sixth child of twelve) of George Moore (1843–1925) and Elizabeth Jane née Cazaly (1845–1924),[2] Walter Charles Moore was born in Fiji on 24 September 1875.[3]

His mother was the aunt of Roy Cazaly;[4] making Moore Cazaly's cousin. His eldest sister, Edith (1868–1907), was married to Sir Francis Pratt Winter (1848–1919). Moore married Rose Alice Walters (1872–1924) on 9 May 1898 at Fitzroy, Victoria;[5] they had one child, George Clarence Leonard Moore (1898–1967), born in Collingwood on 8 November 1898.[6]

His father the Hon. George Moore, originally a soldier, worked as a government official in Fiji from 1872. In 1876 he was appointed as the first Government Surveyor; in 1880 was promoted to Staff Surveyor; and in 1899 he became the Commissioner of Lands, Works, and Water Supply, and the Crown Surveyor.[7] He was awarded the Imperial Service Order for his service in 1903.[8] At the time of Moore's death in South Africa, his father resided in Fiji,[9] and his mother and sister lived at 46 St Vincent Place, Albert Park — the street surrounding the park in which a memorial to Charlie Moore would later be erected.[10]

Footballer

Moore played for the Albert Park Football Club — and possibly the South Melbourne Football Club — in the Victorian Football Association before playing in the VFL.[11] He made his debut for Essendon in the first season of the VFL, on 3 July 1897, against Collingwood at Victoria Park.[12]

Although short (169 cm/ 5' 6½"), Moore played at full-forward for Essendon. At a time when a team's best goal-kicker usually played at centre half-forward, he was their leading goal-kicker in 1898 (his first full season), kicking 20 goals.[13] In just 15 games, he came fifth in the competition's goal-kicking list.[14] In three seasons he played a total of 30 senior games for Essendon, kicking 34 goals.[15]

In the 1898 VFL Grand Final, Moore played against Fitzroy's Stan Reid, who would also die in the Boer War. Moore kicked one goal in Essendon's loss to Fitzroy:[16]

Sportsman

In addition to his footballing skills, Moore was also an excellent swimmer and a highly talented boxer. In the early days of his sojourn in South Africa, Moore showed off his sporting prowess by winning the Regiment boxing competition and being runner-up in the swimming competition:

Soldier

According to a fellow trooper in South Africa, Moore was "university trained, gifted, and well fitted to lead men and gain respect from his comrades". Following the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War, Moore enlisted in the Imperial Military Forces in the Fourth Victoria (Colonial) Imperial Bushmen's Contingent. The stated requirement for enlistment was that candidates must be capable horsemen, and have a certain amount of bush experience. According to (Main & Allen, (2002), pp. 3,5), The Official Records of the Military Contingents to the War in South Africa noted that:

At the time of his enlistment, Moore listed his occupation as "chainman", which indicated that his work was with surveying teams in the bush,[17] and, in particular, that he was responsible for the application of the Gunter's chain. At the time, his height was measured at 5' 6¼" (168.25cm), and his chest at 36inches.[18] Corporal Moore left Australia for South Africa on 1 May 1900, with the Fourth (Imperial) Contingent, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly,[19]

According to a fellow trooper, soon after Moore arrived in South Africa, he was demoted to Private for getting "too big for his boots", and having "looked upon the wine when it was red"[20] On 12 May 1901, he was part of a reconnaissance squad patrolling in the location of the Toorberg Mountain above the Doornbosch Farm[21] when they came across and engaged a group of Boers.[22] In the ensuing battle, Moore's horse was shot out from underneath him, and he took cover behind the body of the fallen horse. He was then seriously wounded when a Boer bullet hit him in the waist, having passed through the body of the dead horse. Moore eventually killed his Boer opponent after eight shots, and had struggled back to a ridge and was crawling along it on his hands and knees when his mates found him. They took the gravely wounded Moore to the nearby Kwaggashoek Farmhouse.[23] He died of his wounds that night; a contemporary South Melbourne newspaper claimed that Moore "was the first man of the Imperial Contingent to die of gunshot wounds".[24]

He was originally buried near to where he died; his body was later exhumed and he is now buried in the Dutch Reformed Church cemetery, Somerset East, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Remembered

Charles Moore is commemorated on war memorials at:

See also

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Main, J. & Allen, D., "Moore, Charles", pp.3–6 in Main & Allen (2002)
  2. Both his parents were born in England. Genealogical Chart: Cazaly (Fourth Generation)
  3. Although both Main & Allen (2002), p.3 and Australians in the Boer War, Oz-Boer Database Project, Full Record: Charles Moore (301)) state that he was born in Albert Park, the evidence of Genealogical Chart: Cazaly (Fifth Generation), obviously constructed from detailed birth records, which states that he was born in Fiji is far more persuasive.
  4. Main & Allen (2002), p.5; see Cazaly Family Tree
  5. See Cazaly Family Tree ; Genealogical Chart: Cazaly (Fifth Generation)
  6. http://member.melbpc.org.au/~lshade/Cazaly/Cazaly5.htm Genealogical Chart: Cazaly (Sixth Generation)
  7. George Moore is listed as "Commissioner of Lands, Fiji" in the Who's Who of 1902 (p.919), as "Commissioner of Lands, Works, and Water Supply, and Crown Surveyor, Fiji" in the Who's Whoof 1903, and as "Late Commissioner of Lands, Works, and Water Supply, and Crown Surveyor, Fiji" in the Who's Whoof 1915 (p.527) and 1916 (p.1577).
  8. The Who's Who entries also state that he was awarded an Imperial Service Order in 1903; the award of which implies long service (see Imperial Service Order).
  9. Both the Who's Whoof 1915 (p.527) and 1916 (p.1577) list his address as "Suva".
  10. Main & Allen (2002), p.6.
  11. Maplestone (1996), pp.430–439 has the records of all those who played for Essendon in the VFA. Moore's name does not appear as an Essendon VFA player. Thus, his first senior VFL game, in round 9 of 1897, was also his first game for the Essendon Football Club.
  12. Maplestone (1996), p.440; AFL Statistics (Round by Round) — Essendon 1897 .
  13. Essendon Football Honour Board Web site: Club Honours - ESSENDONFC.com.au . 2013-01-20 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130117171959/http://www.essendonfc.com.au/club/history/club-honours . 17 January 2013 . dmy-all . ; Maplestone (1996),p.373.
  14. [Archie Smith (footballer born 1872)|Archie "Snapper" Smith]
  15. Web site: Essendon'S Charlie Moore the first VFL player to die at war . Herald-Sun . 22 April 2018 . 26 April 2023.
  16. Rogers & Brown (1998).
  17. In this context it is also significant that his father was the Crown Surveyor on Fiji.
  18. Main & Allen, (2002), p.5.
  19. http://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1450182/ Australian War Memorial Boer War Nominal Roll: Nicholas William Kelly
  20. Nemaric, (2000), p.11. The expression "having looked upon the wine when it was red" is a euphemism for intoxication.
    The expression was first used by E. Œ. Somerville and Martin Ross (i.e., Edith Anna Somerville and Violet Florence Martin) in their series of humorous articles, first published in installments in The Badminton Magazine in 1888 and 1889, and then in aggregated book form in 1901 as Some Experiences of an Irish R.M..
    Somerville & Ross (1906), p.43: "Let it not for one instant be imagined that I had looked upon the wine of the Royal Hotel when it was red, or, indeed, any other colour; as a matter of fact, I had espied an inconspicuous corner in the entrance hall, and there I first smoked a cigarette, and subsequently sank into uneasy sleep."
    The allusion is to Proverbs 23:31: "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright."http://www.godrules.net/library/kjv/kjvpro23.htm.
  21. http://gis.deat.gov.za/isrdp/staticsites/ss_k/documents/doornbosch/doornboschfarm.doc The Doornbosch Farm
  22. Main & Allen, (2002), pp.5–6.
  23. The Kwaggashoek Farm (sometimes written as Quaggashoek) is where the first traces of the deposit that is mined today at Thabazimbi were discovered.
  24. Main & Allen, (2002), p.6.
  25. http://www.hagsoc.org.au/sagraves/photos/mem39.jpg Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra Inc.: Charles Moore Memorial Drinking Fountain
  26. http://www.hagsoc.org.au/sagraves/photos/mem11.jpg Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra Inc.: Ballarat Boer War Memorial (Charles Moore's name appears sixth in the third column of the inscription on the north panel of the memorial, under "4th Victorian Contingent")
  27. http://www.hagsoc.org.au/sagraves/photos/mem67.jpg Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra Inc.: South Melbourne Boer War Memorial
  28. http://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1639795/ Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour: Charles Moore (301)

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