On the 1st October 1894, Moth “O” was born in London. He. was the eldest of 13 children born to John Charles Evenden and Elizabeth Gregory . He was educated at Hagerstown Road School where he excelled, being awarded 2 scholarships to Charter. School. The scholarships were never used as his parents never had the means to get him to Charter School. Instead his father found him a job in a factory earning half a crown a week. To support his income he took to selling news papers. While selling news papers he studied the cartoons. This ultimately impacted his life going forward.

He joined the Australian Army in World War 1. He served in Egypt and later in the Gallipoli campaign where he was badly injured and was evacuated to Malta and hospitalised in London.

After the war he went back to Australia and his farming life, which was not financially successful, resulting in “Evo” getting a newspaper job in Melbourne. In 1923 he got a job in Durban with the Natal Mercury. In 1927 after watching a “War Movie” he was persuaded to draw a Carton of remembrance, known as “Forgetfulness”.

This was the start of Mothing which soon grew with Shellholes opening in the UK New Zealand, Australia and Rhodesia.  The official opening date of the Memorial Order of Tin Hats is 7th May 1927, soon to celebrate 100 years of Mothing, thank to a brilliant man, Moth Charles Evenden. Although we currently have 3500 members with an average age of 65, members exceeded 14000 in the earlier days.

Today is an important date on our calendar as we remember our founder.

Moth “Evo”

1 October. 1894 to 1 April 1961

We Will Remember Him