William Dalgety Moore

William Dalgety Moore
Born August 30, 1835[1]
Died April 22, 1910 (aged 74)[1]

William Dalgety Moore (30 August 1835 – 22 April 1910) was a businessman in Fremantle, Western Australia, and also a pastoralist and politician.

Life

Moore was born in the Swan River Colony in 1835, the eldest child of Samuel Moore and his wife Dorothy (née Dalgety), at his father's estate, 'Oakover', near Guildford.[2]

In 1850, when he was 15, Moore started employment in the surveyor-general's office, remaining for four years there before moving to the North-West to work on a Hamersley & Co. station near Irwin River, where he went on to become the station manager.[1] During his eight years at the station, Moore joined Francis Thomas Gregory and others (in 1858), exploring the Gascoyne and Murchison districts.[1] He also married his first wife, Susanna Dora Monger (on 19 July 1860)[3]

In 1862, at 27 years of age, he headed back south to Fremantle, and joined in business with John Monger.[1] Five years later, in 1867, he founded W. D. Moore & Co., a business that he remained involved with until 1900,[1] and which then continued until the 1970s. The extant W D Moore & Co Warehouse, in Henry Street, Fremantle, still bears the name of this firm.[4]

In 1870 he joined the first legislative council for Western Australia,[5][6] chosen as one of the two elected members to represent Fremantle[7][8] but due to business concerns retired after only two years.[5] The State Heritage Register records that he was the first president of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce, from 1873 to 1875,[4] but the Chamber's own information disagrees with this, and suggests that it was William Marmion.[9]

Moore was a director of the W.A. Bank and on the local board of directors of the Australian Mutual Provident Society.[2] He was also the manager of one of the first timber stations established in Western Australia at Quindalup and had interests in the pearling industry at Shark Bay.[2] Moore also erected the first roller flour mill in Western Australia, building the Phoenix Mill in Essex Street, Fremantle (on the site of an old stone milling plant which had been previously destroyed by fire).[2]

In December 1890 Moore was appointed a nominee member of the Legislative Council but subsequently resigned in February 1892.[10]

His first wife, Susanna, who bore him the first twelve of his eighteen children,[1] died in 1876. On 20 February 1879, Moore remarried, Ann 'Annie' Gallop,[11] with whom he had another six children,[1] over the next ten years.

Moore died on 22 April 1910 at his residence, 'Woodside' in East Fremantle[2] at the age of 74, after several years of ill health.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Ewers, John K. "Moore, William Dalgety". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Mr. W. D. Moore". Western Mail (Perth: National Library of Australia). 30 April 1910. p. 34. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  3. ↑ "Family Notices". The Inquirer & Commercial News (Perth: National Library of Australia). 8 August 1860. p. 2. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "State Heritage Register". 890. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wikisource link to History of West Australia/William Dalgety Moore. Wikisource.
  6. ↑ Black, David (1992). Legislative Council of Western Australia, elections and electoral law 1867-1890. Perth: Parliamentary History Project. ISBN 0-7309-5007-7.
  7. ↑ "Politics Yesterday. An 1870 Election". Western Mail (Perth: National Library of Australia). 18 December 1924. p. 25. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  8. ↑ "Makers of Fremantle". Western Mail (Perth: National Library of Australia). 4 July 1929. p. 11 Edition: The Western Mail Centenary Number. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  9. ↑ Fremantle Chamber of Commerce, History and inaugural members of the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce, retrieved 15 February 2013
  10. ↑ Black, David (1991). Legislative Council of Western Australia : membership register, electoral law and statistics, 1890-1989. Perth: Parliamentary History Project. ISBN 0-7309-3641-4.
  11. ↑ "Family Notices". The Western Australian Times (Perth: National Library of Australia). 25 February 1879. p. 2. Retrieved 18 March 2013.

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