The Columbia Detachment of the Royal Engineers was an elite contingent of the Royal Engineers of the British Army that was responsible for the foundation of British Columbia as the Colony of British Columbia in 1858. It was commanded by Colonel Richard Clement Moody, and its other officers subsequently attained distinction including Captains Robert Mann Parsons, John Marshall Grant, Henry Reynolds Luard, and William Driscoll Gosset, and Lieutenants Arthur Reid Lempriere and Henry Spencer Palmer.
British Columbia
Selection When news of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush reached London, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, requested that the War Office recommend an officer who was "a man of good judgement possessing a knowledge of mankind" to lead 150 (which was later increased to 172) Royal Engineers who had been selected for their "superior discipline and intelligence". Lytton desired to send to the colony 'representatives of the best of British culture, not just a police force': to send men who possessed "courtesy, high breeding and urbane knowledge of the world", such as Richard Clement Moody, whom the government considered to be the archetypal "English gentleman and British Officer", whom the War Office chose. Lord Lytton, who described Moody as his "distinguished friend", accepted, as a consequence of Moody's military record, and of Moody's success as the first Governor of the Falkland Islands, and of the distinguished geopolitical record of Moody's father, Thomas Moody, ADC, Kt., at the Colonial Office, and of Moody's brother Hampden Clement Blamire Moody, who already had served with the Royal Engineers in British Columbia, from 1840 to 1848, to such success that he was granted command of the Royal Engineers across the entirety of China. The Royal Engineers during the 19th century were a socially exclusive elite 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'. Moody's responsibility was to transform the new Colony of British Columbia into the British Empire's 'bulwark in the farthest west' and to "found a second England on the shores of the Pacific". Richard Clement Moody and his wife Mary Susannah Hawks and their four children left England for British Columbia in October 1858 and arrived in British Columbia in December 1858, with the 172 Royal Engineers of the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, and his secretary Robert Burnaby (after whom he subsequently named Burnaby Lake). In addition to Moody, the Royal Engineers officers were the three Captains Robert Mann Parsons, John Marshall Grant, and Henry Reynolds Luard, and the two Lieutenants Arthur Reid Lempriere (of Diélament, Jersey) and Henry Spencer Palmer, in addition to Captain William Driscoll Gosset (who was to be Colonial Treasurer and Commissary Officer). The contingent also included Doctor John Vernon Seddall and The Rev. John Sheepshanks (who was to be Chaplain of the Columbia Detachment). Moody was sworn in as the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia and appointed Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia.
Ned McGowan's War Moody had hoped to begin immediately the foundation of a capital city, but, on his arrival at Fort Langley, he learned of an insurrection, at the settlement of Hill's Bar, by a notorious outlaw, Ned McGowan, and some restive gold miners. Moody repressed the rebellion, which became popularly known as 'Ned McGowan's War', without loss of life. Moody described the incident:
The notorious Ned McGowan, of Californian celebrity at the head of a band of Yankee Rowdies defying the law! Every peaceable citizen frightened out of his wits!—Summons & warrants laughed to scorn! A Magistrate seized while on the Bench, & brought to the Rebel's camp, tried, condemned, & heavily fined! A man shot dead shortly before! Such a tale to welcome me at the close of a day of great enjoyment. Moody described the response to his success: 'They gave me a Salute, firing off their loaded Revolvers over my head—Pleasant—Balls whistling over one's head! as a compliment! Suppose a hand had dropped by accident! I stood up, & raised my cap & thanked them in the Queen's name for their loyal reception of me'.
The Foundation of British Columbia In British Columbia, Moody 'wanted to build a city of beauty in the wilderness' and planned his city as an iconic visual metaphor for British dominance, 'styled and located with the objective of reinforcing the authority of the Crown and of the robe'. Subsequent to the enactment of the Pre-emption Act of 1860, Moody settled the Lower Mainland. He founded the new capital city, New Westminster, at a site of dense forest of Douglas pine that he selected for its strategic excellence including the quality of its port. He, in his letter to his friend Arthur Blackwood of the Colonial Office that is dated 1 February 1859, described the majestic beauty of the site: "The entrance to the Frazer is very striking--Extending miles to the right & left are low marsh lands (apparently of very rich qualities) & yet fr the Background of Superb Mountains- Swiss in outline, dark in woods, grandly towering into the clouds there is a sublimity that deeply impresses you. Everything is large and magnificent, worthy of the entrance to the Queen of England's dominions on the Pacific mainland. My imagination converted the silent marshes into Cuyp-like pictures of horses and cattle lazily fattening in rich meadows in a glowing sunset. The water of the deep clear Frazer was of a glassy stillness, not a ripple before us, except when a fish rose to the surface or broods of wild ducks fluttered away".
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