MOORE, William (1868-1937)

art and dramatic critic

was born at Bendigo on 11 June 1868, the son of Thompson Moore, at one time a member of the legislatise assembly of Victoria. He was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, and, after spending a few years in business, went on the stage and acted in the United States and Great Britain. Returning to Melbourne he joined the staff of the Herald, and in 1905 published a small volume City Sketches. This was followed in 1906 by Studio Sketches Glimpses of Melbourne Studio Life. In 1909 Moore was responsible for an organization to encourage the production of local plays with both literary and dramatic qualities. In 1909 and 1910 several short plays were produced, including The Woman Tamer and The Sacred Place by Louis Esson, The Burglar by Katharine S. Pritchard, and Moore's The Tea-Roorn Girl. This was published separately in 1910. In 1912 Moore went to London and during the war served with the British army service corps. After the war he worked on the press in Sydney for several years. In 1934 he published a conscientious and valuable work in two volumes, The Story of Australian Art. The germ of this was a small pamphlet, The Beginnings of Art in Victoria, which Moore had written in 1905, and the book was gradually built up from original sources over a long period of years. In 1937 with T. Inglis Moore he edited a collection of Best Australian One-Act Plays, and contributed to it an introductory essay on "The Development of Australian Drama". He died at Sydney on 6 November 1937. In 1923 he married Madame Hamelius, well-known as a New Zealand and Australian poet under the name of Dora Wilcox. Mrs Moore survived him.

The Argus, Melbourne, 8 November 1937; Who's Who in Australia, 1933; personal knowledge.