When Frederick Moore entered the gas-lit upstairs room of a London inn in late 1863, little did he know he was about to witness the birth of football as we know it. Moore had made his way to the Freemason’s Tavern, near Covent Garden, to attend a meeting “for the purpose of promoting the adoption of a general code of rules for football”.

Fifteen men, many representing local clubs and schools plus a number of neutral observers, joined the discussion. It would be the first in a series of gatherings that led to the formation of the English Football Association and laid down the Laws of the Game for the first time.

Early football was a loose concept with rules that varied from place to place, depending on who was playing. Some clubs and schools allowed carrying of the ball in the hands and for players to “hack” – kick the shins – of their opponents. Others forbade both practices and instead called for the ball to be “dribbled” with the feet.

Variations in the size of ball, dimensions of the field, the height at which a goal could be scored, the treatment of offside and the number of players per team were other sources of conflict. The only constant was the primary objective which required players to move a ball into their opponent’s goal. That, and confusion.

This prompted Ebenezer Morley, a solicitor and founder of Barnes FC, to write to ‘the Daily Telegraph’ newspaper suggesting football have a set of rules. Monday October 26, 1863, was set down as the date for a meeting which took Moore, captain of Blackheath FC, to the Freemason’s Tavern on Great Queen Street, central London.

Moore was born on March 13, 1839, at Oakover, the family farm and vineyard in the Swan Valley, east of Perth. He was the third of six children born to Samuel Moore, a prominent businessman with interests in farming and shipping, and Dora Dalgety, whose father was one of the last military commandants in the Tower of London.

When his father died of a heart condition in mid-1849, Moore was put in charge of wine production on the farm. Four years later the now 14-year old sailed to Melbourne and then on to London, where he finished his education at Blackheath Proprietary School in south-east London.

It was here that Moore was introduced to football, quite probably both the carrying and dribbling versions as each was played at his school. And when he heard the bell sound for the final time, Moore was amongst a number of former students who, with all wishing to continue playing the game they loved, formed the Blackheath club.

The minutes of the October 26 meeting show Moore as one of two representatives of Blackheath, the other being Francis Campbell, who was elected treasurer. Arthur Pember of the Kilburn-based No Names club was appointed president while meeting organiser Morley was installed as secretary.

The clubs present agreed to “form themselves into an association called the Football Association.” No Names, Barnes, War Office, Crusaders, Forest (Leytonstone), Perceval House (school), Crystal Palace, Blackheath, Kensington School, Surbition and Blackheath School were accepted as members. Charterhouse School choose not to join.

The nine Rules of the Football Association were set down at a second meeting 15 days later. The two hour discussion also resulted in an incomplete set of nine Laws being agreed to, so a third meeting was held where a provisional list of 23 Laws was drawn up. It was following this third meeting that Moore took his exit.

A somewhat heated fourth meeting was adjourned without agreement. Many clubs were unhappy with the more physical aspects of the rules – specifically “hacking” – which could result in injury and keep players from working, while others did not want to lose what they viewed as “the courage and pluck” of the game.

The debate was similarly fierce seven days later when Campbell again argued that “hacking” was an essential element of football. However, the Blackheath representative was firmly in the minority and when the December 1 meeting concluded and the practice of hacking as well as carrying the ball in the hands were omitted from the Laws.

Morley tabled the final set of 13 Laws at a sixth meeting on December 8. These were accepted by majority as the first Laws of the Game. Campbell, although supportive of the objectives of the Football Association, withdrew Blackheath in protest, stating the Laws would “so utterly destroyed their game and take away all the interest”.

The new Laws were given a practice run by the Barnes and Richmond clubs, who played out a scoreless draw on Saturday December 19. The first official game under the Laws took place on January 9, 1864, when the FA President’s team claimed a 2-0 victory over the FA Secretary’s team at Battersea Park, on the banks of the River Thames.

Campbell and the Blackheath club would stick to their principles. A number of other clubs and schools followed their lead by not joining the Football Association and in 1871 Blackheath became a founding member of the Rugby Union. But Moore had long since departed London by the time his club turned solely to rugby.

Moore would enjoy a long and rewarding, but evidently football-free, life. Shortly after his dalliance with the emerging Football Association, he was employed as a wine merchant by his uncle’s import-export agency, Dalgety and Company. In 1864 and following the discovery of gold in New Zealand, he was sent by the company to Dunedin.

The following year Moore was appointed manager of the company’s Invercargill operations. He was subsequently based in Christchurch and Launceston before settling in Sydney, where he became managing director. Moore was also a director of the Imperial Insurance Company and the Sydney-based Union Bank of Australia.

Moore married twice. His first marriage was to Jane Williams in 1865, however, the union was unfortunately short-lived as she passed away soon after giving birth to their son, Frederick Dalgety, in 1867. Eight years later he wed Alice Ffrench with whom he had a daughter, Vera Gascoigne, born in 1888.

A man of broad interests, Moore was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Union Club and the Australian Jockey Club, both of which were in Sydney. He died in Hobart on 2 April, 1934, aged 95. Moore was the last surviving member of the group of that gathered in 1863 to mould the modern game.