Hampden Clement Blamire Moody

Siblings

Hampden Clement Blamire Moody's siblings included Major Thomas Moody (1809–1839);^[16] and Major-General Richard Clement Moody (1813–1887) (who was the first British Governor of the Falkland Islands, and the founder of British Columbia);^[5][4][17] and The Rev. James Leith Moody (1816–1896)^[17][5][4] (who was Chaplain to Royal Navy in China, and to the British Army in the Falkland Islands, and Gibraltar, and Malta, and Crimea);^[18] and the sugar-manufacture expert Shute Barrington Moody^[19][5][20] through whom his nephew was Commander Thomas Barrington Moody (b. 1848) of the Royal Navy.^[21]

Issue

Hampden Clement Blamire Moody married Louise Harriet Thomson, who was the daughter of Samuel Thomson, at Belfast, in 1860.^[22] They had two daughters, Nea Sophia Louise (b. 14 October 1862), who married O'Donnell Grimshaw,^[23] and Harriet Maud Maria (b. 12 February 1867), and one son.

Their son Captain Hampden Lewis Clement (b. 28 February 1865, Hong Kong,^[24] d. 19 December 1924),^[23] who was educated at Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst,^[25] and resided at The Red House, Brockenhurst, Southampton,^[23] served, with the 2nd Battalion of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment,^[26] in South Africa and in the Orange Free State and Orange River Colony, including at Biddulphsberg and Wittebergen, and in the Cape Colony, during 1900,^[27] before his retirement from the military on 28 August 1907.^[28] He was a member of the Army and Navy Club, Pall Mall.^[23]

Canada

Moody was educated at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a Gentleman Cadet,^[29] and commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1837.^[30][31] The Royal Engineers during the 19th century were a socially exclusive elite^[32] land-marine force, whose officers were drawn from the upper middle-class and landed gentry of British society,^[32] who performed, in addition to military engineering, 'reconnaissance work, led storming parties, demolished obstacles in assaults, carried out rear-guard actions in retreats and other hazardous tasks'.^[33]

Moody was promoted to lieutenant in 1839.^[31] He served in Canada from 1840 to 1848, for which he was based at Fort Garry (which later became Winnipeg) which was a trade-base of the Hudson's Bay Company,^[2] of which he was a member.^[34][35] Between 1844 and 1846, he performed confidential service behind the United States' border.^[31][2] In 1845, he assisted Edward Boxer and Lieutenant-General William Cuthbert Elphinstone Holloway to investigate Canada's defences and communications against the United States.^[36] Moody during 1846 was promoted to captain and began two years of special service in Hudson Bay Territory, for which he received 'favorable notice' of the British Secretary of State and of the Commander-in-Chief.^[31]

Moody was a freemason of St. Paul's Lodge (Ancient York Masons) in Montreal, which was No. 12 on the Registry of Lower Canada and No. 374 on the Registry of England, under the United Grand Lodge of England.^[37]

Moody was an accomplished artist^[34] whose typical paintings depict Canadian landscapes,^[39][34][40] and are in The National Archives of the United Kingdom,^[41] the Public Archives of Canada,^[42] and the Provincial Archives of Manitoba.^[43]

Kaffir War

Moody fought in the Kaffir War of 1851 to 1853,^[34] for which he received a medal and a notice for his conduct on 12 and 13 June 1852, on which he had led a much outnumbered group of Royal Engineers in the Koonap Pass^[31] during a shootout against rebel Khoekhoe between wagons and dwellings.^[44] He was the commander of the 9th Field Company Royal Engineers during 1852 and was Senior Royal Engineer on the 1852 Waterkloof and Transkei expeditions with Sir George Cathcart.^[31]

Hong Kong and China

Moody was the commander of the Royal Engineers across all of Hong Kong and China during the Second Opium War (1856 – 1860)^[45] and, from April and May 1862, during the Taiping Rebellion, near Shanghai.^[46][31][34] He was Commanding Royal Engineer during the Taiping Rebellion until he became unwell and was replaced by 'Chinese Gordon'. Moody was promoted to major in October 1858, and to lieutenant-colonel on 28 November 1859,^[31][47][48] and to colonel in November 1864.^[31] He was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Bath.^[49][37]

Belfast and Death

Moody was serving as Commanding Royal Engineer at Belfast^[50] when he died on 27 February 1869,^[51] at his residence^[1] 1 Lower Crescent,^[52][31][53] from a kidney infection that he had contracted from his assault by an Irish revolutionary. His funeral in Belfast was attended by 240 soldiers of the 54th Regiment and their brass band, and the Royal Engineers and their band, and a troop of the 12th Lancers, and the band of the Antrim Rifles,^[1] and the members of Ark Masonic Lodge X/No. 10,^[54] of which he had served as Past Master^[55] and as Senior Warden.^[56]

He was buried at Malone Cemetery, Belfast,^[1] which was later renamed Balmoral Cemetery, Belfast.^[57] His diverse collection of Chinese ornaments was sold in Belfast during March 1869.^[58]

His widow was living at 41 West Cromwell Road, South Kensington, in 1903,^[59] and died during December 1908, when she left an estate of £15,449 (over £1.2 million in 21st-century money).^[60]