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Rev. William Moss (1828-1891) |
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William Moss was born in Farnham, Surrey, England and was an active member of the Farnham Mechanics’ Institute from a young age. He migrated to Australia at the age of 22. In 1852 he was publicly ordained as pastor of the Independent Church in Prahran, a post he held for nearly twenty years. The Independent Chapel, the first public building in Prahran, was the only church in Prahran for two years, and gave busy Chapel Street it’s name. Moss called the first meeting of residents to discuss the establishment of a mechanics’ institute in Prahran. This meeting was followed closely by a public meeting on 1 May 1854 at which he moved that the Institute should be at once established. Moss led a philanthropic and community-minded life, being also very closely associated with the Prahran and South Yarra Ladies Benevolent |
Society, the Prahran Town Mission, the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution and Mission (now the Adult Deaf Society of Victoria), the Victorian Asylum and School for the Blind (now Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind), and the National School movement. He passed away at his home in Malvern ('Farnham') at the age of 63 and is buried at the St Kilda Cemetery. J.B. Cooper, in his History of Prahran, described Moss as having a 'magnetic personality, charged by an abounding love of humanity'. (Source: Stonnington Archives. This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced for other purposes without the prior permission of the Stonnington Local History Archives.) |
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