Arthur William Moore (AWM) was born on 1 May 1893, the son of William and Ellen Moore. For eight years until 1898 William Moore was valet and waiter to Sir Edward Synge Hutchinson (1830-1906) who had served in the Crimea with the 5th Dragoon Guards. In April 1898, when the family were living at 142 Kennington Road, Lambeth, William Moore worked at the City Carlton Club. In a jury summons dated 18 December 1914 William Moore was described as a night porter.
On 30 March 1904 the Moore family moved to Fulham. Their first address was 15 Tamworth Street then, on 25 July 1907, they moved to 29 Lilyville Road, and finally, on 1 October 1915, to a newly built house at 7 Colwith Road. William Moore remained at that address until about 1953.
In April 1921 Arthur William Moore was living at 59 Winchendon Road, Fulham. He was married by August 1921 to Dorothy (Dolly) Anderson, his cousin from New Brancepeth in County Durham. The family visited Durham regularly, and kept in close touch with relatives living there. Around the end of 1922 AWM moved to 3 Werter Road, Putney, and was still living there in 1925 when the documentation ceases.
Arthur William Moore attended Archbishop Sumner's Higher Grade Memorial School, Kennington, in 1900 and was at Childerley Street School, Fulham in 1907-8. He attended Battersea Polytechnic Boys' Secondary Day School, Latchmere Road, Battersea, from about 1908 to 1912 and Islington Day Training College, Offord Road, Islington, from about 1912 to 1914. As part of his training he was a pupil teacher at Lillie Road School, Fulham, in 1910 and 1912. At both Battersea and Islington he showed an interest in student magazines, English and sports. In April 1911 he was a patient at St George's Hospital, followed by a period at the Atkinson Morley Convalescent Hospital. This may have been because of a hernia.
Arthur William Moore joined the Royal Flying Corps on 23 December 1915 (Service number 16871) as a general clerk, and was based at the Medical Records Office, RFC Headquarters, South Farnborough, Hants. In January 1916 he spent a short period in Ireland at The Curragh, County Kildare. In June 1917 he was posted to the RFC School of Military Aeronautics, Victoria College, Toronto, Canada as a general clerk, and spent the rest of the war there. During 1918 he became an Instructor in Aerial Navigation with the RAF (as the RFC had become), and was a corporal by October 1918. In December 1918 he requested demobilisation to resume his career as a teacher of English in Britain, and he returned early in 1919. He appears to have studied part-time at the London School of Economics in 1920.
The St Paul's Parish Church Magazine for May 1919 reported that the staff vacancy at St Paul's Church of England Boys' School, Queen Street, Hammersmith, was to be filled by "Mr A W Moore of Islington LCC Training College, late of the RAF. Mr Moore had served in Canada with the RAF and is a graduate of London University." In August 1924 Arthur William Moore was a temporary teacher at Riversdale School, Southfields, SW18. He also taught English and arithmetic at several evening institutes in Hammersmith, Clapham and Westminster between 1920 and 1924-25. He was involved with a number of local schools' sports associations in West London, including the Fulham Schools Swimming Association in 1915, the Hammersmith Schools Swimming Association in 1919-20, and was Honorary Treasurer of the Hammersmith Schools Football Association in 1924. He was a member of the West London Teachers' Association (possibly on the committee) in 1924. He travelled regularly to a number of West European countries, visiting Belgium in 1911, 1920, 1921 and 1923, Holland and Germany in 1912 and France in 1913 and 1922. While based in Toronto with the RFC/RAF he travelled in Canada and the USA |