Morton Henry Moyes OBE (1886 - 1981)

Born 1886 in Koolunga, South Australia, Australia

Died 20 Sep 1981 at about age 95 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Morton Moyes OBE is Notable.

Navy Service Card February 1914

A Sea Roamer ^[1] (1936, August 12).
ONE of the most travelled Australians in the fleet Is Commander M. H. Moyes, who returned, after 18 months abroad on HMAS Australia. He has not lacked variety during his life. Twice he went south with Sir Douglas Mawson, and again with the Shackelton relief expedition He knows the seas of the south as well as those that wash the shores of England and Egypt.
He has an affection for the sea, and with Byron can say:

And I have loved thee, ocean! and my joy

Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be —

But the sea was not the only arena of youthful sports for Commander Moyes He was the first University of Adelaide athletic "blue," and was high jump champion of South Australia. He also made his mark in football and cricket.

Morton Henry Moyes ^[2] (1886-1981), Antarctic explorer and naval officer, was born on 29 June 1886 at Koolunga, South Australia, second surviving son of John Moyes, headmaster, and his wife Ellen Jane, née Stoward. Two brothers were John Stoward (1884-1972), Anglican bishop, and Alban George (Johnny) (1893-1963), journalist and cricket commentator.

Moyes was educated at the Collegiate School of St Peter, Adelaide, and the University of Adelaide, graduating B.Sc. in physics and mathematics in 1910, and representing the university at football and athletics. He was South Australian high and broad-jump champion in 1906-08 and in 1909, while teaching at Townsville Grammar School, represented Queensland in the Australasian amateur athletic championships.

At university Moyes had been greatly impressed by his geology lecturer (Sir) Douglas Mawson and from Rockhampton Grammar School he successfully applied to join Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14. He was meteorologist for the western base party under Frank Wild which was to winter on the Shackleton Ice Shelf; he had received a few days of instruction in meteorology in Hobart in November 1911. In November 1912 Moyes was left alone in the winter-quarters hut while a group, led by Wild, went on a sledging trip. The loss of a sled delayed the group's return and Moyes endured nine weeks of anxious solitude, sustained by his strong religious faith.

After returning to Australia in March 1913 Moyes became headmaster of the University Coaching College in Sydney. He was recruited as a naval instructor at the newly established Royal Australian Naval College in February 1914. Initially he specialized in mathematics but soon began to teach navigation and in 1915 spent some months in the cruiser HMAS Encounter, gaining practical navigating experience. He was promoted senior naval instructor in January 1916 and his polar experience was recognized when he was made navigating officer of the Aurora which, commanded by Captain John King Davis, sailed from New Zealand to the Ross Sea in December to rescue marooned members of (Sir) Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition. . . . . .

. . . . . Moyes was sturdily built, erect in bearing and with a direct gaze; his sanguine temperament stood him in good stead during his Antarctic expeditions. A widower without children, he died in Sydney on 20 September 1981 and was cremated after a service at St Andrew's Church, Roseville. He is commemorated by several Antarctic place-names.

People – LifeTree

• ADIEU, MR. MAWSON and his party who are bound for the Antarctic regions, had a splendid send-off at the Banqueting Boom at the Adelaide Town Hall on Saturday. (1911, November 25). Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931), p. 49. Retrieved July 4, 2019,
• Tagged as: Morton Henry Moyes Digitised newspapers in Trove.

Sources

South Australia Birth Index : 1886 | Book/Page: 376/397 ^[3]
Surname | Given Name | Father Name | Mother Name | District
Moyes Morton Henry | John Moyes | Ellen Jane Stoward | Clare

1. ↑ Whispers on the air (1936, August). The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954), p. 12 (COUNTRY EDITION). Retrieved July 5, 2019
2. ↑ Denis Fairfax, Moyes, Morton Henry (1886–1981), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University,
   published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 5 July 2019.
3. ↑ genealogysa Book/Page:

See also:

• Wikidata: Item Q6914923
• Wikipedia: Morton Moyes