Australian public servant (1900?1988)
Sir Charles Alfred Joseph Moses
CBE
(21 January 1900 – 9 February 1988) was a British-born Australian administrator who was general manager of the
Australian Broadcasting Commission
(ABC) from 1935 until 1965.
A 1918 graduate of the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst
, Moses served in the
Occupation of the Rhineland
and the
Irish War of Independence
. He emigrated to Australia in 1922. After a few years as a farmer and car salesman, he joined the ABC in 1930 as a radio sports announcer. During the Second World War he escaped from
Singapore
with
Major General
Gordon Bennett
, led the
2/7th Cavalry Regiment
at the
Battle of Buna-Gona
, and
crossed the Rhine
as a media executive accompanying the
British Commandos
.
After the war ended, the ABC created its own news organisation. It expanded its audience in rural areas through the new
ABC Rural
department with
The Country Hour
, and the iconic
radio serial
,
Blue Hills
. With the arrival of television in Australia in 1956, Moses oversaw the ABC's move to provide Australia's first national television service in time for the
1956 Olympic Games
in
Melbourne
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Charles Joseph Alfred Moses was born at Woodlands Farm in
Westhoughton
,
Lancashire
, England, on 21 January 1900, one of five children of Joseph Moses, a farmer, and his wife Elizabeth, nee Henderson. In 1902, the family moved to
Shropshire
, where he was educated at
Oswestry School
, from which he graduated in 1912. He then entered the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst
, graduating in 1917. Shortly before the
Armistice of 11 November 1918
that ended the
Great War
, he joined the 2nd Battalion, the
Border Regiment
, and served in the
Occupation of the Rhineland
. In 1919, the 2nd Battalion moved to Ireland, where the
Irish War of Independence
had broken out.
[1]
There, he fell in love with an Irish girl, Kathleen (Kitty) O'Sullivan of
Castlebar
in
County Mayo
. Courting her was dangerous; to see her he had to ride up to 30 kilometres (19 mi) on a bicycle along country roads controlled by the anti-British
Irish Republican Army
armed with a
Webley Revolver
.
[2]
They were married in the Catholic Church at Aughrim Street in
Dublin
on 3 June 1922.
[1]
They had a son, Tom, and a daughter, Kathleen.
[2]
Peacetime soldiering not being to his liking, Moses resigned his commission later that year; the newlyweds emigrated to Australia to join the rest of his family, who had emigrated in 1919. He used his payout from the British Army to buy the family farm in
Bendigo, Victoria
.
[1]
Although he knew a great deal about cattle and sheep farming in England from having grown up on a farm there, tomato and citrus growing in Australia was quite different. The farm was not a success, and he lost all his money. He moved to Melbourne where he tried selling real estate, and worked as a physical training instructor. He also sold cars for six years before the onset of the
Great Depression
, when he found himself out of work.
[2]
Moses applied for a position as a radio announcer at the
Australian Broadcasting Commission
(ABC). His southern English accent was considered the ideal radio voice at the ABC at the time, and in 1930 he was invited to commentate on an
ice hockey
game. He was 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 17 stone (240 lb; 110 kg), and was noted for his prowess as an athlete. He had represented the state of
Victoria
in
rugby union
, was a champion discus-thrower, and had won the Victorian amateur heavyweight
boxing
championship in 1925. He had also played
soccer
,
cricket
and
hockey
while in the Army; but he had no knowledge of ice hockey. He read up on the sport and called the game. His broadcast was successful, and he was invited to join the ABC a week later, in August 1930.
[3]
Over the next few years, Moses became well known as a sport caster, calling the rugby and
The Ashes
matches of the
Australian cricket team in England in 1934
from telegraphed despatches as if the commentary was live from the venue.
[1]
[4]
He became the ABC's Sporting Editor in
Sydney
in January 1933, the Federal Controller of Talks in September 1934, the Federal Liaison Officer in August 1935, and finally, in November 1935, the general manager.
[2]
[5]
His predecessor,
Walter Conder
, had been in conflict with the chairman of the ABC,
William James Cleary
. Conder had wanted to give the listeners what he thought they wanted: sports and entertainment; Cleary wanted to give them what he thought they should have: discussion and high culture. Inevitably, Cleary won the argument.
[6]
Cleary and Moses fostered Australian talent and promoted original content, but they also brought out overseas artists like
Elisabeth Rethberg
,
Ezio Pinza
,
Malcolm Sargent
,
Lotte Lehman
, and
Arthur Rubinstein
. Concert organisers charged that the ABC had no right to break monopolies by producing its own concerts. A compromise was reached, whereby the ABC was permitted to broadcast any concert for which admission was charged. Access to news produced a similar problem, with the ABC confronting
Keith Murdoch
's powerful
News Limited
, which had great influence over conservative politicians like
Joseph Lyons
and
Robert Menzies
. Without its own news-gathering organisation, the ABC was dependent on News Limited. When war broke out in September 1939, Moses decided to broadcast the news independent of News Limited. Menzies refused to back the ABC.
[2]
Second World War
[
edit
]
Moses volunteered for service with the
Second Australian Imperial Force
(AIF) on 13 May 1940, and was given the AIF
service number
NX12404. A
lieutenant
in the British Army
Reserve of Officers
, he was commissioned in the AIF as a lieutenant on 17 May 1940. He was promoted to
captain
on 1 July, and was posted to the
2/20th Battalion
as a company commander. On 3 February 1941, he embarked for
Singapore
on the
ocean liner
RMS
Queen Mary
. He was promoted to
major
on 24 August 1941, and on 30 August joined the staff of AIF Malaya, under
Major General
Gordon Bennett
.
[7]
[8]
As liaison officer to the
11th Indian Division
,
Moses twice narrowly escaped ambushes.
[1]
On 11 February 1942, he had a conversation with Bennett's aide, Lieutenant G. H. Walker, in which he expressed a desire to escape if Singapore fell, as seemed likely at that point. Five days later, Moses, Bennett and Walker escaped from Singapore in a
sampan
, and made their way to
Sumatra
. They crossed Sumatra to
Padang
, on its west coast, from whence they flew to
Java
. In
Batavia
, Moses was knocked down by a taxi, fracturing his ribs. He was diagnosed with
scrub typhus
, and placed on the dangerously ill list. He was evacuated by a Dutch freighter and taken to Perth where he was hospitalised at the 110th and 113th General Hospitals. After the war he strongly supported Bennett's decision to escape from Singapore.
[11]
[1]
[8]
On 9 October 1942, he was appointed commander of the Port Moresby Base Area, then engaged in
support of the Kokoda campaign
, with the rank of
lieutenant colonel
.
[8]
Not satisfied with an administrative post, he personally lobbied the commander of Allied Land Forces,
General
Sir
Thomas Blamey
, and the
Minister for the Army
,
Frank Forde
, for an active command, demonstrating his fitness by running up an 800-metre (2,600 ft) hill.
[2]
On 27 December he assumed command of the
2/7th Cavalry Regiment
, which he led in the bitter
Battle of Buna-Gona
, fighting as infantry.
In February 1943, he was evacuated to the 2/5th General Hospital in Port Moresby with
malaria
. On 12 April 1943, he relinquished command of the 2/7th Cavalry Regiment, and was placed on the Australian Reserve of Officers.
[8]
For his services, he was
mentioned in despatches
on 10 August 1943.
[14]
Later life
[
edit
]
While he was in hospital recovering from malaria, Moses received a personal letter from the
Prime Minister of Australia
,
John Curtin
. His
Australian Labor Party
had always been treated roughly by the newspapers, particularly the Murdoch press, and when it had come to power in 1941, it had instructed the ABC to ignore its agreements with the news agencies, and to gather its own news. Curtin feared that unless Moses was at the helm, the ABC would revert to sourcing all its news from the agencies. Moreover, Curtin wanted the ABC to develop a sense of national identity, and to provide the workers and service personnel with more entertainment. This last task inevitably set Moses up for a clash with Cleary, but now it was the general manager who held the cards, and Cleary resigned on 30 March 1945.
[2]
Investiture of Sir Charles Moses by the
Governor General of Australia
,
Viscount De L'Isle
In February 1945, Moses attended the Empire Broadcasting Conference in London, and was invited to see how the war in Europe was being reported by the
BBC
. He observed the
crossing of the Rhine
by
Field Marshal
Bernard Montgomery
's forces, and crossed the
Rhine River
with the
British Commandos
.
[2]
He was awarded the
France and Germany Star
.
[8]
After the war ended, the Australian Broadcasting Act (1946) charged the ABC with responsibility for gathering its own news.
[1]
The ABC expanded its audience in rural areas with the new
ABC Rural
.
The Country Hour
, which began in 1945, did surprisingly well even in city areas. The ABC followed it up with
The Land and its People
, a series of documentaries, and the iconic
radio serial
,
Blue Hills
in 1949.
Moses did not neglect high culture; in 1945 he reached an agreement with the
Sydney City Council
to create an ABC orchestra. Soon there were ABC orchestras in all the state capitals.
[2]
A major change was the introduction of television in 1956. The Labor Party had, in June 1949, pledged to introduce television into Australia as soon as possible, but it had lost office later that year, and the
Liberal
Menzies government
was opposed to television, which Menzies hoped would never come to Australia. Nonetheless, he was unable to stem the tide of public opinion, and the Broadcasting and Television Act (1956) allowed for television in Australia just in time for the
1956 Olympic Games
in
Melbourne
. The addition of television caused a spurt of growth at the ABC, as staff numbers grew from 2,000 in 1956 to 3,000 in 1960, while the budget doubled from £3.7 million to £7.4 million.
By the late 1950s, Moses' good relations with the politicians were a thing of the past. In October 1957, the
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
,
Arthur Calwell
, launched a vitriolic attack on Moses over his appointment of Peter Homfray, an Englishman and an unsuccessful Liberal Party candidate for the
Parliament of Tasmania
, as director of
Radio Australia
, an appointment that Moses had deliberately made when the
Australian Parliament
was in recess.
[1]
In 1963, Menzies ordered Moses not to broadcast a BBC interview with
Georges Bidault
, the former
Prime Minister of France
, who was living in exile after conspiring against the government of
Charles de Gaulle
. Moses sent copies of the video to commercial stations, and it was broadcast by the
Nine Network
in Sydney and the
Seven Network
in Melbourne.
Moses retired in 1965 and was succeeded as head of the ABC by Sir
Talbot Duckmanton
. When Moses had taken charge in 1935, he had less than 300 people and just 14 radio stations. Duckmanton inherited an ABC with 83 radio stations, 24 television stations and a staff of 5,000.
Moses was made a
Commander of the Order of British Empire
in the
1954 Birthday Honours
,
[19]
and was
knighted
in the
1961 Birthday Honours
.
[20]
From 1965 to 1977, he served as the first Secretary-General of the Asian Broadcasting Union (now known as the
Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union
), a non-profit professional association of broadcasters.
[1]
He published a book on it,
Diverse Unity: The Asian-Pacific Broadcasting Union, 1957?1977
in 1978.
[1]
He became a foundation member of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1954, and helped with the design competition for the
Sydney Opera House
, becoming a foundation member of the
Sydney Opera House Trust
in 1961. In 1969, he became vice president of the
Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales
.
[1]
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
Moses died at
Turramurra
in
Sydney
on 9 February 1988, and his remains were cremated.
[1]
He had a son named Tom; his daughter Kathleen had died in 1960.
[2]
The Charles Moses Stadium at the
Sydney Showground
at
Sydney Olympic Park
was named in his honour.
[21]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Petersen, Neville (2012).
"Moses, Sir Charles Joseph (1900?1988)"
.
Australian Dictionary of Biography
. Vol. 18. Canberra: National Centre of Biography,
Australian National University
.
ISBN
978-0-522-84459-7
.
ISSN
1833-7538
.
OCLC
70677943
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Petersen, Neville (2009).
"A Biography of Sir Charles Moses"
.
Global Media Journal
.
3
(1).
ISSN
1835-2340
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
.
[
predatory publisher
]
- ^
"Pen, Pencil and Personality: Charles Moses"
.
Table Talk
. No. 3543. Victoria, Australia. 2 April 1936. p. 18
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
– via National Library of Australia.
- ^
"Mr. Charles Moses Mentioned"
.
Tweed Daily
. Vol. XXII, no. 242. New South Wales, Australia. 9 October 1935. p. 4
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
– via National Library of Australia.
- ^
"Broadcasting"
.
The Canberra Times
. Vol. 9, no. 2542. 5 November 1935. p. 1
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
– via National Library of Australia.
- ^
"The 6WF Story ? Part 2 of 3"
. WA TV History
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
.
- ^
"Mr. Charles Moses"
.
The Sydney Morning Herald
. No. 31, 946. 20 May 1940. p. 8
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
– via National Library of Australia.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Moses Charles Joseph Alfred: Service Number ? NX12404 : Date of birth ? 21 Jan 1900 : Place of birth ? Atherton England : Place of enlistment ? Sydney NSW : Next of Kin ? Moses Kathleen"
.
National Archive of Australia
. NAA: B883, NX12404
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
.
- ^
"Moses's Decision to Escape"
.
The Sydney Morning Herald
. No. 33, 676. 28 November 1945. p. 4
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
– via National Library of Australia.
- ^
"Mentioned in Despatches"
.
The London Gazette
. No. 36129. 10 August 1943. p. 3626.
- ^
"Commander of the Order of British Empire"
.
The London Gazette
(1st supplement). No. 40189. 10 June 1954. p. 3297.
- ^
"Knight bachelor"
.
The London Gazette
(1st supplement). No. 42371. 2 June 1961. p. 4179.
- ^
Bodey, Michael (1 April 2016).
"Michelle Guthrie faces a baptism of fire at the ABC"
.
The Australian
. Retrieved
11 July
2017
.
References
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External links
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