Hampden Clement Blamire Moody

Colonel Hampden Clement Blamire Moody CB (1821 – 27 February 1869) was the Commander of the Royal Engineers in China throughout the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion.

Hampden Clement Blamire Moody was born on 10 January 1821,^[1] at 7 Alfred Place, Bedford Square, London, into a high church landed gentry family that had a history of military service.^[2] He was eighth of ten children^[3][4] of Colonel Thomas Moody, CRE WI, Kt.,^[2] and of Martha Clement (1784–1868) who was the daughter of the Barbados landowner Richard Clement (1754 – 1829)^[5][6] and the aunt of the Belgravia cricketers Reynold Clement and Richard Clement.^[7]

He was named after his maternal uncle Hampden Clement (1808 - 1880) who was the joint owner of the estates Black Bess (197 slaves)^[8] and Clement Castle (231 slaves)^[9] (formerly Sober Castle, latterly Ellis Castle) in Saint Peter, Barbados.^[10]

His paternal grandmother was Barbara Blamire of Cumberland who was a cousin of the MP William Blamire and of the poet Susanna Blamire.^[11] His paternal cousin was the high church clergyman Clement Moody, Vicar of Newcastle.^[4][12]

Hampden Clement Blamire Moody's siblings included Major Thomas Moody (1809–1839);^[13] and Major-General Richard Clement Moody (1813–1887) (who was the first British Governor of the Falkland Islands, and the founder of British Columbia);^[4][3][14] and The Rev. James Leith Moody (1816–1896)^[14][4][3] (who was Chaplain to Royal Navy in China, and to the British Army in the Falkland Islands, and Gibraltar, and Malta, and Crimea);^[15] and the sugar-manufacture expert Shute Barrington Moody^[16][4][17] through whom his nephew was Commander Thomas Barrington Moody (b. 1848) of the Royal Navy.^[18]

Hampden Clement Blamire Moody married Louise Harriet Thomson, who was the daughter of Samuel Thomson, at Belfast, in 1860.^[19] Hampden's wife was living at 41 West Cromwell Road, South Kensington, in 1903.^[20] They had two daughters, Nea Sophia Louise (b. 14 October 1862), who married O'Donnell Grimshaw,^[21] and Harriet Maud Maria (b. 12 February 1867), and one son.

Their son Captain Hampden Lewis Clement (b. 28 February 1855, Hong Kong, d. 19 December 1924),^[21] who was educated at Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst,^[22] and resided at The Red House, Brockenhurst, Southampton,^[21] served, with the 2nd Battalion of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment,^[23] 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,^[24] before his retirement from the military on 28 August 1907.^[25] He was a member of the Army and Navy Club, Pall Mall.^[21]

Moody was educated at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a Gentleman Cadet,^[26] and commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1837.^[27][28] The Royal Engineers during the 19th century were a socially exclusive elite^[29] land-marine force, whose officers were drawn from the upper middle class and landed gentry of British society, 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'.^[30]

Moody was promoted to Lieutenant in 1839.^[28] Moody 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,^[1] of which he was a member,^[31][32] and for which, between 1844 and 1846, he performed confidential service behind the United States border.^[28][1] In 1845, Moody assisted Edward Boxer and Lieutenant-General William Cuthbert Elphinstone Holloway to investigate Canada's defences and communications against the United States.^[33] 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 Secretary of State and of the Commander-in-Chief.^[28]

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.^[34]

Moody was an accomplished artist^[31] whose typical paintings depict Canadian landscapes,^[36][31][37] and are in The National Archives of the United Kingdom,^[38] Public Archives of Canada,^[39] and Provincial Archives of Manitoba.^[40]

Moody fought in the Kaffir War of 1851 to 1853,^[31] for which he received a medal and a notice for his gallant conduct on 12 and 13 June 1852, on which he had led a significantly outnumbered group of elite Royal Engineers in Koonap Pass^[28] during a shootout against rebel Khoekhoe between wagons and dwellings.^[41] Moody was 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.^[28]

Moody was the Commander of the Royal Engineers across all of Hong Kong and China during the Second Opium War (1856 – 1860)^[42] and, from April and May 1862, during the Taiping Rebellion, near Shanghai.^[43][28][31] He was Commanding Royal Engineer during the Taiping Rebellion until he became unwell and was replaced by Major-General Charles George Gordon. Moody was promoted to Major in October 1858, and to Lieutenant-Colonel on 28 November 1859,^[28][44][45] and to Colonel in November 1864.^[28] He was invested as a Companion of the Order of the Bath.^[46][34]

Moody was serving as Commanding Royal Engineer at Belfast^[47] when he died on 27 February 1869,^[48] at 1 Lower Crescent.^[49][28][50] A memorial to him exists at Balmoral Cemetery, Belfast.^[51]

• Vetch, Robert Hamilton (1894). "Moody, Richard Clement" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 38. p. 332-333.

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