William Henry
Moule
Male
Australia
1858-01-31
Brighton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
1939-08-24
Saint Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Educated at Melbourne Grammar School, Bill Moule went on to study law at Melbourne University. He later became a county court judge specialising in insolvency cases. From 1894, he represented his native city of Brighton in the Legislative Assembly of Victoria and sat in the House until 1900. Although he took part in the men’s singles event at the Victorian Championships in 1885, Bill Moule was much better known in the sports arena as a cricket player.
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From For Club and Country, by Ken Williams:
https://www.mcc.org.au/_/media/files/mcc/library/for-club-and country.pdf?la=en
Six feet tall, Bill Moule was an attractive batsman, whose strength lay in his off side strokes, and a useful medium pace bowler. An athletic fieldsman, he possessed a particularly fine arm. He was one of the last players chosen for the 1880 tour of England, being added to the side a little over a week before it embarked.
He had very little first class experience before the tour (just Victoria’s two matches against Lord Harris’ English team in 1878-79) and owed his selection to the unavailability of several leading players. His record on the tour was very modest, but he performed with credit in the Test match at the Oval, the first to be played in England. Picked to replace the injured Fred Spofforth, he was Australia’s most successful bowler, taking three for 23 in England’s first innings of 420, and in Australia’s second innings contributed a career-highest score of 34 to a last wicket stand of 88 with Billy Murdoch, which enabled it to avoid an innings defeat.
He played only two first class matches after his return, Victoria’s home matches against New South Wales in 1881-82 and 1885-86. Hence his career for Victoria was very brief, just four matches, in which he scored 64 runs at 10.66 and took one wicket. Moule played for the Melbourne Cricket Club from 1875-76 to 1881-82, and reappeared for them in 1890-91. He also played for University in the mid 1880’s.
He won Melbourne’s bowling average in 1876-77, the same season in which he made his highest score for the club of 89 not out. He was admitted to the Victorian bar in 1879. From 1894 to 1900 he was the member for Brighton in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and in 1907 was appointed a County Court judge. He sat on the Melbourne Cricket Club committee from 1886-87 to 1896-97 and from 1907-08 to 1909-10. The last survivor of the first Test match in England, he maintained a keen interest in the game, even while sitting on the bench.
1885 - 1885
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Round 1
Haworth William Bartram 1 *
William Henry Moule
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