Essendon forward Charlie Moore was the first VFL player to die at war

AS ESSENDON and Collingwood prepare for their Anzac Day tradition, a story has emerged of a young Essendon forward who put his footy on hold to go on an adventure of a lifetime but never returned.

Forward Charlie Moore (second from left, top row) lines up with Essendon’s 1897 squad.

ESSENDON footballer Charlie Moore was one of three ­soldiers who cast a message in a bottle over the side of their transport ship as they sailed to the Boer War in May 1900.

The bottle washed up near Point Addis, between Bells Beach and Anglesea, by which time Moore and the 4th Victorian Imperial Bushmen’s Contingent were well on their way to South Africa.

This was eight months before Australia’s Federation, and Gallipoli was a point on a Turkish map, not the landmark of this country’s war contribution it would become in 15 years.

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As Essendon prepares to take on Collingwood in Wednesday’s 24th instalment of their Anzac Day tradition, it is worth remembering the sacrifice made by young forward Moore, who put his footy on hold to go on what was meant to be the adventure of a lifetime. He never returned.

Exactly a year after Moore’s message was thrown overboard, he was dead — aged 25 — and the first of 159 VFL footballers to die at war.

So much of the Anzac focus centres on the remarkable contribution made during the First and Second World Wars, but more than 16,000 Australians served in the Boer War in South Africa from 1899 to 1902; two of those killed were VFL footballers.

The pair who died — Moore and Fitzroy’s Stan Reid — had been on opposing sides in the 1898 VFL Grand Final.

Moore died from his wounds in May 1901, six weeks before Reid, a Presbyterian minister, was killed, aged 28.

Moore first played football for Albert Park and may have played for South Melbourne in the VFA. But he came to prominence with Essendon, playing four games in a season in which the club won the first VFL flag in 1897.

Forward Charlie Moore (second from left, top row) lines up with Essendon’s 1897 squad.

A cousin of Roy Cazaly, Moore was the club’s leading goalkicker in 1898, kicking 20 goals, including one in the Grand Final loss to Fitzroy, and 12 goals the following year from 11 games. He played 30 games for Essendon, kicking 34 goals. His last game was in Round 16, 1899.

The Emerald Hill Record ­described Moore as “a keen sportsman ... a magnificent swimmer (and) before the ­departure of the contingent, he was the life of the camp at ­Laverton.”

After his death, the same newspaper published one of his final letters home to Australia, which would detail an experience eerily similar to his demise just months later.

Moore wrote: “The Major ordered an officer and six men to ... occupy a kopje (small rocky hill), in case (the Boers) came around there. Of course, I had to go; we advanced to the hill in extended order, and nearing the top — bang, bang, bang went the rifles of the ­ambushed Boers.

“The bullets flew all around us. We let them have volley after volley, only to find the beggars were coming down the hill and surrounding us.

“So I retreated about 200 yards, and when I was getting my horse under cover, the poor beast dropped — shot.

“Well, I shot until my ammunition ran out, so watched them come down and take the officer and four men prisoners; where the other one went I don’t know. They looked all over the place for me, but I got underneath, and waited there until dark, when I got up and started towards the railway, and was in luck’s way as there was an armoured train waiting.

“By Jove, I don’t want an experience like it again with so few men. They are terrible shots ... but all the same they came too close for my liking.”

Essendon and Collingwood players will run out for the 24th instalment of their Anzac Day tradition. Picture: George Salpigtidis

Moore wasn’t so lucky in May 1901 near Doornbosch.

A letter sent to his mother by Lieutenant MacDonald detailed: “We came onto the enemy at once and engaged them. To prevent them outflanking us, I sent Lieutenant Elliott (later Brigadier-General ‘‘Pompey’’ Elliott) and four men (including Moore) to ascend a kopje to check the Boers.

“Moore’s horse was shot as soon as he reached the top of the ridge, and he took cover behind the dead body of his horse. While in that position another bullet hit his horse, and passed through his body, clean through his waist, penetrating the kidney.”

Despite being mortally wounded, Moore “fired eight shots at his man and killed him, then crawled back a thousand yards to the edge of the ridge to cover, descended the cliff with the help of his comrades, and rode a horse for about a mile.”

He died of his wounds at a farmhouse at Quaggashoek and was buried nearby with “a neat white cross”.

His remains were later moved to a final resting place.

Moore’s friends funded a memorial drinking fountain near the Bridport shops in Albert Park. It was later transferred to nearby St Vincent Gardens.

On the 20th anniversary of Moore’s death, in 1921, more than 500 people attended a ceremony honouring the first VFL footballer to die in action.

The fountain remains a lasting reminder of Moore’s ultimate sacrifice.

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