3 minute read
From the Archive
from Torch Spring 2019
by CareyGrammar
Above: 1924 School Council. Back row: TH Chinner, Revd Dr FJ Wilkin, FI Richardson, W Holmes, Revd W Holdsworth. Front row: Revd W Cartwright, FP Morris (President, Baptist Union of Victoria), A Neville, Dr W Moore (President, School Council), Revd AS McDonald, JW Biggs. Absent: Revd JH Goble, Revd R Ings, Revd J Robertson, Revd ES Tuckwell, AJ Fullard, AM Spicer.
The legacy of Dr William ‘Jerry’ Moore
Joanne Horsley Archivist
William Moore was a young man who made the most of his opportunities. He was intelligent, diligent and hard working. He attended Brisbane Grammar School and graduated with honours. In a fortuitous change of plans, he decided to study at the University of Melbourne rather than Sydney – a decision which had a profound impact on both his remarkable career and the future of Carey Baptist Grammar School. He set off for Melbourne knowing no one and equipped only with a letter of introduction to Pastor Poole, the Minister of Emerald Hill Baptist Church (now South Melbourne) and a lifelong nickname, ‘Jerry’, acquired at his school. Dr Moore graduated at the top of his year in 1883 and was awarded a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with first class honours. In the following year he married Pastor Poole’s daughter Grace Emily, and resumed his studies. In 1885, aged 28, he was awarded the first ever Master of Surgery from the University of Melbourne. He was an avid reader of current medical literature in French, Italian and German. His aptitude, intelligence, diligence, and hard work were an asset to his career, but he was outspoken, a perfectionist, and not given to delegation. This, along with a certain amount of professional jealousy about his early success, meant that he was not popular among his peers. Surgeons of the time took few hygienic precautions to prevent infection, but the methods adopted by Dr Moore involved the use of carbolic acid to sterilise surgical instruments and clean wounds. This was known as ‘Listerism’, named after Joseph Lister who had introduced the practice. Some of Dr Moore’s more senior colleagues regarded these practices as fads. However, the evidence
was in the results, as the mortality rates in Dr Moore’s patients reduced from 80 per cent to 10 per cent. Among his grateful patients were returned soldiers of World War I who had suffered horrific injuries. For the pioneering work he did in restorative plastic surgery for the soldiers, he was awarded the rank of Honorary Colonel. Dr William Moore was a staunch Baptist and a leader in the Baptist Union of Victoria. Together with Revd Leonard Tranter he lobbied for the establishment of a Baptist school. His determined support was confirmed in 1920 when he became the first donor to the Educational Foundation in the drive to purchase the Kew property ‘Urangeline’. The Baptist Union made the wise decision to appoint Dr Moore as the first President of the School Council – now known as Chair of the Board. In 1923, his wife, Mrs Grace Emily Moore, turned the symbolic key which formally opened the School. Dr William Moore is recognised and permanently acknowledged at Carey by the naming of Moore House, one of the first three Houses named and inaugurated in 1924. In 1925, Dr Moore laid the foundation stone of the first building extension, and was presented with a traditional silver trowel and beautiful photo album of students and buildings of Carey Baptist Grammar School. This was his last formal function as President, for at a subsequent meeting on that same day, he declared his resignation. Dr Moore’s death was announced in the following year, 1927. A note of appreciation in the School Council minutes states, ‘The Council of Carey Baptist Grammar hereby expresses its profound sorrow at its great loss in the death of Dr William Moore, and its sincere appreciation of all he was and all he did in connection with the establishment of the School.’
