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Colonel Richard Moody's Royal Engineer's tunic. RBCM 2007.13.1. |
Colonel Moody - larger than life
You'd have been unwise to judge Colonel Richard Clement Moody by his physical size. After Governor James Douglas, no one had more influence over the shape of early British Columbia.
Colonel Moody led the Columbia Detachment of the Royal Engineers, a small but effective military force in the colony. As the military commander, Moody chose Queensborough (now New Westminster) as the colonial capital - it later moved to Victoria. He also oversaw the surveying of much of southern BC, including the boundary with the United States, and the building of the Cariboo Road through the Fraser Canyon.
This man had big plans and carried through on them.
