Horace Moore-Jones (1868-1922) emigrated from England to Auckland, New Zealand, with his family, probably in 1885, where he studied art. He moved to Australia in 1891 but returned to Auckland in 1908, where he taught privately and at the Ladies' College, Remuera. About 1912 he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Moore-Jones joined the British Section of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He served with the 1st Field Company of Engineers during the landing at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915. He was then seconded to the ANZAC Printing Section to document the rugged terrain and allied and Turkish positions in pencil sketches, plans and watercolours.

Moore-Jones’ works, often made at considerable personal risk, aided operational planning and illustrated official dispatches. In late 1915 his sketching was interrupted by a wound to his right hand and he was eventually invalided back to Britain due to exhaustion. After his recovery, Moore-Jones painted additional watercolours based upon his experience at Gallipoli with exhibitions at New Zealand House and Buckingham Palace in 1916. In that year he returned to New Zealand where his work was widely exhibited, often accompanied by talks in which he shared his personal experience of the bitter fighting at Gallipoli.