Colonel Richard Clement Moody was a British military officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, a province in western Canada. In 1858, he led a group of Royal Engineers to British Columbia to establish a new British colony on the Pacific coast of North America.

Colonel Richard Clement Moody was born in 1813 in the United Kingdom. He joined the British Army in 1831 and served in a number of locations, including the West Indies, Malta, and Canada, before being appointed as the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia in 1858. He was also a member of the Royal Engineers, a corps of the British Army that specializes in technical and engineering tasks.

Moody was tasked with establishing a new British colony in what is now British Columbia, which was previously a part of the Hudson's Bay Company's fur trade territory. The Royal Engineers under his command were responsible for surveying and mapping the region, building roads and other infrastructure, and establishing the new colonial capital at New Westminster. They also negotiated treaties with local Indigenous peoples, established a system of law and order, and oversaw the development of the new colony.

The Royal Engineers, also known as the Corps of Royal Engineers, are a corps of the British Army that has been responsible for a wide range of engineering and technical tasks since its creation in 1716. Members of the corps are commissioned officers and hold a higher social status than non-commissioned officers and enlisted soldiers in the British Army.

In the mid-19th century, when Colonel Moody and the Royal Engineers were sent to British Columbia, the corps was one of the most prestigious and well-respected organizations in the British military. This was due in part to the specialized technical and engineering skills of its members, as well as to the fact that it was considered an elite and exclusive branch of the army. Members of the corps were often drawn from the upper classes of British society and received a high level of training and education.

In British Columbia, the Royal Engineers were based primarily in the new colonial capital of New Westminster, which was established by Colonel Moody and his team. From there, they carried out a wide range of engineering and technical tasks, including surveying and mapping the region, building roads and other infrastructure, and negotiating treaties with local Indigenous peoples. They also played a key role in the development of the province's social and political institutions, helping to establish a system of government based on British parliamentary traditions and overseeing the creation of a legal code.

One of the most significant achievements of Moody and the Royal Engineers was the construction of the Cariboo Wagon Road, a transportation route that linked the goldfields in the interior of British Columbia with the coastal ports. This road was instrumental in the development of the province's mining industry and in connecting different regions of the colony.

Moody also had a significant impact on the development of the new colony's social and political institutions. He helped to establish a system of government based on British parliamentary traditions, oversaw the creation of a legal code, and played a key role in negotiations with Indigenous peoples that established the basis for treaty-making in the province.

Moody's work in British Columbia was crucial to the establishment of a British presence in the region, which helped to secure British interests in the Pacific Northwest during a time of increasing American expansionism. The legacy of Moody and the Royal Engineers is still visible in the province today, particularly in the form of the many roads, bridges, and other infrastructure projects that the Royal Engineers built during their time in British Columbia.