Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones

Born 1879 - Died 3 Apr 1922

Service number: WWI 4/26A AWMM
Also known as: Horace AWMM
Armed force / branch: Army AWMM
Last rank: WW1 Sapper AWMM New Zealand Engineers AWMM
War: World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM

Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones — 1/4 portrait of Private H Moore- Jones, with the New Zealand Engineers (Photographer: Herman Schmidt, 1917). Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-J3805. No known copyright. No Known Copyright Restrictions

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Biographical information

Husband first of Anne Dobson (dod 1901); then Florence Mitchell (b. 2 June 1877). Father of Amy Josephine (b. 1906); Paul (b. 1909) and Sarah (b. 1919)

Horace Moore-Jones was the artist of the picture(s) of "Simpson and his Donkey" at Gallipoli. He did a number of water colour paintings of scenes of the campaign.

Horace Jones was born probably in 1867 or 1868 at Malvern Wells, Worcestershire, England. After studying art under Anne Dobson, a portrait painter and sculptor, he married her in Auckland on 5 September 1891. The couple then moved to Sydney, Australia, where Anne died on 7 June 1901. From 1892 to 1905 Horace Jones exhibited with the Art Society of New South Wales. About this time he changed his name to Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones and painted what may be his first war subject. He presented this oil painting, 'The departure of the Ninth Contingent from New Zealand for the South African War', to the Auckland Art Gallery in 1902.

In 1914, at the age of about 46, Moore-Jones enlisted in the British Section of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Before joining the main body of the force in Egypt on Christmas Eve 1914 he trained on Salisbury Plain, and after being posted to the 1st Field Company of Engineers participated in the allied landing at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915. He was subsequently attached to Lieutenant General Sir William Birdwood's ANZAC Printing Section to make topographical pencil and watercolour sketches of the landscape and plans of allied and Turkish positions. His sketches of the harsh terrain, made under hazardous conditions, were an invaluable aid for planning operations and defence, and were used to illustrate official dispatches. He also made informal picturesque studies of the landscape around Imbros (Gökçeada).

Known as 'Sapper Moore-Jones', he chose to remain in the ranks and offered comfort to the sick and wounded while working as a field artist. 'In November 1915 he received a wound in his right hand which put a temporary end to his work. His health deteriorated and he was invalided to Britain suffering from exhaustion. After recuperating at the 1st Southern General Hospital, Birmingham, he made further watercolours based on his Gallipoli studies. An exhibition of these was held at New Zealand House from 11 to 24 April 1916 and shown by command at Buckingham Palace.

In 1916 Moore-Jones was classified unfit for battle duty and repatriated to New Zealand.

While in Dunedin with the exhibition he painted the first of his watercolours of 'The man with the donkey'.

An artist and teacher, he taught art at Hamilton High School from 1918.

On 3 April 1922 the Hamilton Hotel where Moore-Jones was staying caught fire at four o'clock in the morning. Although he escaped without difficulty, he returned to the building to rescue others who were trapped there. Later that day Horace Moore-Jones died at Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, from shock following extensive burns.

New Zealand's best-known war artist from the period, he won high acclaim in Britain and New Zealand for his Gallipoli sketches, which are now a vital part of the art collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. In New Zealand his work is represented in the Auckland City Art Gallery, the Hocken Library, the Waikato Art Museum and in several other New Zealand collections.

Auckland Museum World War 1 "Anzac Cove" display. Display item is a watercolour of Anzac Cove AWMM

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Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones