William Charles Angwin (1863-1944)

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William Charles Angwin, born Cornwell England in 1863. He left Cornwall in 1882 to work as a builder in Cumberland where he joined social reform movements and worked for the temperance cause. In 1884 he married Sarah Ann Sumpton. They had children Benjamin, Elizabeth, Mary and Justus. The Angwins migrated to Victoria in 1886 and in 1892 moved to Western Australia where he worked for Sandover & Co. in Fremantle until 1904.

He worked on the management board of the Fremantle Public Hospital and Fremantle Municipal Tramway and Electric Lighting Board from 1910-1926. Angwin was a founding member of the East Fremantle Municipal Council and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for the Labor Party from 1904 until 1927, representing the seats of East Fremantle and North-East Fremantle. resigned in April 1927 to become agent-general in London for six years. In 1935 and 1938 he chaired two royal commissions on wheat and in 1936 presided over the Rural Relief Trust. He died at his Fremantle home on 9 June 1944.


Matthew Lewis Moss (1863-1946)

Moss Street was named after the first Mayor of East Fremantle 1897 - 1900, Matthew Lewis Moss.

Moss was born in Dunedin New Zealand in 1863, was educated there as a Barrister and arrived in Western Australia in 1891. Moss married Katherine Lyons in 1895. From 1892–1914, he practiced law at Fremantle, and later in Perth with Moss and Dwyer. Moss served as Liberal Party MLA North Fremantle 22 May 1895 (by-election)–4 May 1897, MLC West Province 22 May 1900–6 December 1901, 22 May 1902–21 May 1914, Contested North Fremantle 15 June 1894, East Fremantle 5 May 1897, West Province 6 December 1901 (ministry by-election), Colonial Secretary 21 November–23 December 1901, Minister without portfolio 13 August 1902–10 March 1904; 25 August 1905–7 May 1906.

In 1934 he was acting Agent General for WA and went as a member of a (unsuccessful) Secession delegation to Imperial Parliament, along with Sir Hal Colebatch, James MacCallum Smith, and Keith Watson (see photo below).

He fought bitterly against the move of the Railway Yards from the Fremantle Ports to Midland in 1904, which had a huge impact upon the working class population of Fremantle.

Moss married Katherine Lyons in 1895, with whom he had two sons. She had been an inaugural member of the Senate of the University of Western Australia. Moss died at a London nursing home in February 1946, aged 82 at the time of his death.