Ian Richard Moss was born on 20 March 1955 in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, to Geoffery Moss (18 April 1911 – 1989) and Lorna (née Robinson) (born ca. 1922).[A] During World War II Geoffery survived the 1942 bombing of Darwin, he enlisted in the army and later worked for the Allied Works Council in Alice Springs. Lorna was a fellow employee at Allied Works Council when they married in September 1945.