The Moore family – and more

As a child growing up in the ‘sixties I was fortunate to watch (former World Speedway Champion) Ronnie Moore ride ‘The Wall of Death’ and was thrilled to get a loan of these photographs and get copies of them. The first photo (above) shows Ronnie on a pre-war Velocette running on rollers outside his Wall of Death. The second photo shows the Moore family, with father Les standing at the front and Ronnie at the right. I was recently given another photo, which nobody knew anything about. With my magnifying glass I was able to read “Ithaca War Memorial”. I looked up Ithaca in my world atlas and found a town in America and one in Greece. My immediate thought was that this was probably Greece, but I needed to know more so I Googled ‘Ithaca War Memorial’ and I was surprised to see that it is in Australia. A photograph shows the unveiling of the monument in 1922. The location is Enoggera Terrace, Paddington, Brisbane. The Indian looks possibly new and I have no idea who the chap is or the uniform he is wearing.

Steve Prince Greymouth, NZ

Thanks for the photos Steve. Ronnie Moore is one of the legends of the sport of speedway, World Champion in 1954 and 1959 and still held as one of the greatest stylists of all time. Ronnie is now 83 and in 1985 was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queens Birthday Honours list. – Ed