# Richard Stanley Hawks Moody

Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks Moody, CB (23 October 1854 – 10 March 1930) was a distinguished British Army officer, and historian, and Military Knight of Windsor. He was the eldest son of Major-General Richard Clement Moody, Kt. (who was the founder of British Columbia) and of Mary Susannah Hawks of the Hawks dynasty.

## Birth and family

Moody was born in Strada Reale, Valletta, Malta, on 23 October 1854, into a High Church merchant family, with a history of military service. He was born whilst his father was Malta's Commanding Executive Officer of Royal Engineers. Moody was the eldest son of Major-General Richard Clement Moody, Kt. (who was the founder and the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia) and of Mary Susannah Hawks (who was the daughter of the merchant banker Joseph Hawks JP DL, and of Mary Boyd of the merchant banking family).
Moody's paternal grandfather was the geopolitician Colonel Thomas Moody, CRE WI, Kt. Moody's uncles included James Leith Moody (1816 -1896) (who was Chaplain to Royal Navy in China, and to the British Army in the Falkland Islands, and Gibraltar, and Malta, and Crimea); and Colonel Hampden Clement Blamire Moody CB (1821 - 1869) (who was Commander of the Royal Engineers in China during the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion); and the Etonian engineer Shute Barrington Moody (b. 1818).

## Early life

Moody spent his infancy in British Columbia, of which his father was founder and first Lieutenant-Governor, and is mentioned in the letters that were written by his mother, Mary Hawks, to England. Moody and his brothers were educated in England at Ludlow Grammar School and at Cheltenham College. Moody subsequently was commissioned, as a sub-lieutenant, in the 3rd Regiment of Foot, on 9 August 1873. He subsequently passed the Staff College, Camberley.

## Military service
### Anglo-Zulu War

Moody served in the Anglo-Zulu War, in 1879, as an adjutant, in Zululand, with the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of Foot.

### Malta

Moody was brigade major at Malta between 1885 and 1890. His father Major-General Richard Clement Moody, Kt. died on 31 March 1887 and left over £24,000 in money (about £1.2 million in 21st century money) in addition to his estates.

### India

Between 1895 and 1897, Moody served in the Chitral Expedition, in which he was part of General William Forbes Gatacre's flying column.
Moody was part of the Malakand Field Force in 1897, during which he was second in command of 3rd Regiment of Foot under General Sir Bindon Blood, after whom he named his youngest daughter, Barbara Bindon. During this conflict, Moody was mentioned in dispatches, and fought alongside Winston Churchill, who mentions him in Chapter XII (At Inayat Kila) of his history of the conflict, The Story of the Malakand Field Force.

### Second Boer War

Between 1899 and 1902, Moody served in the Second Boer War, for which he was mentioned in dispatches at least twice. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 24 February 1900 to command a battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, which was not raised, so he was sent to South Africa on special service, and commanded the 2nd battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, from January 1901 to end of campaign. In this position he was again mentioned in despatches. Following the end of the war in June 1902, he returned to England on the SS Custodian which landed at Southampton in August 1902. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the South Africa honours list, which was published on 26 June 1902, and he received both the Queen's and King's medals with 5 clasps. He received the decoration of CB from King Edward VII during an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902.
Moody was back in South Africa and in command of the 2nd battalion when around 640 officers and men of the battalion left for Bombay on the SS Soudan in January 1903, to be stationed in Rawalpindi.

### World War I

Moody initially retired from the Army in 1906, to serve as Commander of the Devon and Somerset Brigade of the Territorial Army until 1910. Moody subsequent to the outbreak of World War I in 1914 rejoined active service and raised the 7th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, He served also as Colonel of 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers and, during 1915, as Commandant of a School of Instruction for Officers at Dover. He during 1916 he raised, from the Devonshire Regiment, and took to France, a battalion of the Labour Corps, which he commanded from 1917 to 1918, after which he retired again.

### Military Knight of Windsor and Historian

Moody lost his brother, Henry de Clervaux Moody, in the Second Boer War, and his only son, Thomas Lewis Vyvian Moody, in the World War Ir. Moody was appointed an honorary Colonel of the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) and a Military Knight of Windsor in 1919. He was a member of the Naval and Military Club. Moody, at the request of The Buffs, wrote The Historical Records of The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 3rd Regiment of Foot, 1914–1919, which was published during 1923. He during 1922 gave the first copy of the book to the Royal Library, Windsor. Moody died on 11 March 1930 at Windsor Castle. He is buried at All Saints' Churchyard in Monkland, Herefordshire, where at Plot 62 there is a memorial to him, and to his sister, Gertrude, and to his son, Thomas Lewis Vyvian Moody.

## Marriage

Moody in 1887 married Mary Latimer (d. 1936), who was the daughter of John Latimer Esq. of Leeds, and they had four children:
* Mary Latimer (b. 1883, d. 1960). Married Major-General James Fitzgerald Martin at Exeter Cathedral, in 1906, and had one daughter, Mary Charlotte (b.1909).
* Marjorie Brogden (b. 1886, d. 1962, Dennington, Suffolk). Married Arthur Graham Brown, in 1914, and had two sons, George Arthur and Thomas Lionel Vyvian. Thomas Lionel Vyvian was educated at Cheltenham College and at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, before he was commissioned in the Royal Engineers, with whom he went to Egypt with the 1st Armoured Division. He received the George Medal for service on the Agedabia El Aghelia Road on 17 January 1942.
* Thomas Lewis Vyvian (b. 4 November 1896, Peshawar, Bengal, d. 21 March 1918, killed in action, Lagnicourt, France). He was educated at Cheltenham College, at Eastbourne College, and at Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Subsequent to leaving Eastbourne College, Moody served on HMS Worcester, with the Royal Indian Marine Service, until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, whereupon he entered the Australian Army at Melbourne. He served with the 8th battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment during the Gallipoli Campaign. Subsequent to his wounding during the Gallipoli Campaign, Thomas Moody entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, from which he was commissioned, as Lieutenant, in the 1st battalion of Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), with which he served on the Western Front from July 1916. Thomas was fatally shot, whilst he was in command of platoons that were surrounded by German troops on the Western Front near Lagnicourt, by a German officer with a revolver. Thomas is commemorated at the Arras Memorial, France, and at The Royal Memorial Chapel, Chapel Square, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He died unmarried and without issue.
* Barbara Bindon (b. 1903, India, d. 1973). Barbara married the choral conductor James W. Webb-Jones on 20 December 1930, at Parish Church, Windsor, and had one daughter, Bridget (b. 5 September 1937) who married the musician Peter S. Lyons at Wells Cathedral in 1957.

## Published works

* Moody, Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks (1922). The Historical Records of The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), (3rd Regiment of Foot), formerly designated the Holland Regiment and Prince George of Denmark's Regiment, 1914 – 1919. Medici Society, London.