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Portable Altar and Communion Set Presented to Canon Robert Henry Moore Rural Priest and Australian Imperial Force Chaplain

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Overview

Portable Communion set consisting of wooden altar serving as carrying case and fitted with candlesticks, cruxifix and communion vessels manufactured. Sterling silver dedication plate attached to front of closed case.

Historical information

Robert Henry Moore was born on 8 June 1872 at Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. He read theology at Trinity College, Dublin and was ordained priest on 13 June 1897. Moore responded to an appeal by Bishop Riley for additional clergy to minister to Western Australia's gold rush population. He reached Fremantle in the Oruba on 1 June 1898 and spent 10 years in bush parishes. A miner’s saying of the time was, “As soon as the women and goats come, then the parsons”. Moore’s response was, “I decided that I would get there before the goats”.
Recognition of Moore's energy and leadership came in 1910 when he was appointed a canon of St George's Cathedral, Perth, and in 1911 when he was assigned as priest to St John's Church, Fremantle. After he was discharged from the AIF he returned to Fremantle. On 14 September 1921 he married Margaret, the daughter of Archbishop Riley. Moore served as Archdeacon of Northam and rural dean in 1921-29, before his election as dean of Perth in October 1929.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-99.011

Themes

Religion

Inscriptions and markings

After the death of his first wife in 1916, Cannon Moore was commissioned in November 1917, as a chaplain in the Australian Imperial Force. He served with the 3rd Light Horse Brigade in the Middle East in 1918-19. This portable altar and communion set was a departure gift from the parishioners of St John’s, Fremantle.

Primary significance criteria

Historic significance

Social or spiritual significance

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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