Vada Moore (1914-1999)

Vada Moore was born at Elsternwick in 1914, the daughter of commercial traveller Alfred Brooks and his wife Annie Cox. She married John Moore in 1937 and they raised their family in Melbourne’s southern suburbs before moving to the Mornington Peninsula. They later returned to the city to live at Albert Park.

She was a valued and hard-working member of the RHSV. She joined the Society in 1963 and became a Life Member in 1980. An outstanding research officer and library assistant, during her years as a volunteer she indexed all fifty books of newspaper clippings held by the Society, as well as completing the mammoth task of indexing 75 years of Council minutes. She also spent months sorting and arranging the Turnbull Collection, at the time the Society’s largest single collection of letters and diaries. Vada’s outstanding contribution to the RHSV was honoured when she became a Fellow in 1984.

Vada died on 28 December 1999 aged 85. In their tribute to her in the Herald-Sun, her family recalled her storytelling, her sense of humour and her unselfish regard for all who crossed her path.

Kaleidoscope exhibition text by Cheryl Griffin, February 2022. Full entry to follow.