Richard Clement Moody

Moody, Richard Clement

Richard Clement Moody, royal engineer (b in Barbados, British W Indies 13 Feb 1813; d at Boumemouth, England 31 Mar 1887). Educated at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, England, he obtained a commission in the Corps of Royal Engineers and was posted to St Vincent, West Indies (1831); served as the first governor of the Falkland Islands (1841-49); commanded the Royal Engineers at Newcastle upon Tyne and served in Malta where he was promoted lieutenant-colonel (1855). He was appointed commander of the British Columbia Detachment, Royal Engineers, in 1858 and chief commissioner of lands and works and lieutentant-governor of the new crown colony of British Columbia in 1859. The Royal Engineers, established for military, practical and scientific purposes, policed the goldfields in the interior, surveyed townsites, constructed roads and selected New Westminster as the colony's first capital. In 1863, the Royal Engineers were disbanded and Moody returned to England.