Richard Moon

Sir Richard Moon, 1st Baronet (1814–1899) was a railway engineer. He became chairman in June 1861 of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) until he retired on 22 February 1891.[1]

Early life

Born in Liverpool, the elder son[2] of merchant Richard Moon (1783-1842) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Bradley Frodsham, of Liverpool,[3][4][5] In 1830 the family firm of Moon Brothers was the sixth largest cotton importer in the city and dominated its trade with Brazil, where some members were based.[6]: 10, 99, 22 . From 1828 to 1830 the younger Richard Moon completed his secondary education at the University of St Andrews, without taking a degree. While English students at Scottish universities were usually Nonconformists, there is no evidence of this for the Moons.[6]: 11–15  His father died in 1842, leaving a substantial sum of money with instructions that it should be invested on the family's behalf in docks and railways, recommending in particular the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the Grand Junction Railway, and the London & Birmingham Railway. A few months later, his uncle John also passed away in Brazil.[6]: 24, 26  As their heir, executor, and trustee for the family, the younger Richard Moon was now a wealthy man and his focus shifted from trading in Liverpool to managing these substantial shareholdings.

London and North Western Railway

In 1846 the three railways merged to form the London and North Western Railway, which over the following decades became the largest public company in the world.[7] As an activist investor, Moon became a member of the board. In April 1852 he was appointed chairman of the Stores Committee, which under Moon came to control all the railway's purchases, from coal for the locomotives down to the buttons on staff uniforms, with a relentless focus on reducing costs.[6]: 70–71, 80–81 . He was particularly obsessed with expenditure on gas, demanding in 1856 that every station keep daily records of how many hours each light was kept burning.[6]: 90–91  An 1858 reorganization expanded his fiefdom into the Stores & Locomotive Expenditure Committee, which he used to push the consolidation of the multiple rolling stock works that the LNWR had inherited from its predecessors.[6]: 155, 157  He was appointed deputy chair of the board in February 1861 and elected chairman in June that year. He chose to act as an executive chair.[6]

As chair, Richard Moon, being concerned with costs, concentrated locomotive construction at Crewe, and carriage construction at Wolverton, thus enhancing the prosperity of each site.

Other railways

Sir Richard also founded the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales, in association with George Assheton-Smith, which opened in 1896.[8]

Personal life

He lived in Bevere, a small hamlet on the banks of the River Severn, in Claines parish, Worcestershire, from 1849 to 1863.[6]: 32–36  At the parish vestry meeting on 24 April 1851 he was elected as Vicar's Churchwarden.[6]: 36  After moving to Copsewood Grange, east of Coventry, he invested in Joseph Cash's attempts to manufacture artificial silk.[9]

Moon married Eleanor (1820-1891), daughter of John Brocklebank, of Hazelholm, Whitehaven, Cumberland, a former officer of the West Cumberland Volunteers, in 1840; they had three sons and two daughters.[10][11][12]

Moon was created a baronet, of Copsewood Grange, in the parish Stoke, in the County of Warwick, in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom, on 22 July 1887.[13] He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his grandson, Cecil Ernest Moon (son of Sir Richard's eldest son, Edward, who died in 1893). He is buried at St. Bartholomew's Church, Coventry.

Richard Moon Street in Crewe is named after him.

References
  1. Reed, Michael. "Moon, Sir Richard, first baronet (1814–1899)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45712. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45712. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 2003, vol. 2, p. 2755
  4. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1965, 18th edition, vol. 1, ed. Peter Townend, p. 87, 'Brocklebank formerly of Childwall Hall' pedigree
  5. The Visitation of England and Wales, vol. 9, ed. Joseph Jackson Howard and Frederick Arthur Crisp, 1901, p. 141-142, Brocklebank pedigree
  6. Braine, Peter (2010). The Railway Moon: some aspects of the life of Richard Moon 1814-1899, Chairman of the London & North Western Railway 1861-91. Taunton: pmb publishing. p. 216. ISBN 9780956529008. ...the executive role he played...
  7. "London and North Western Railway Company". Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  8. NRM, Pictorial Collection. "Image of Sir Richard Moon". Science & Society Picture Library. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  9. Walters, Peter The Story of Coventry, The History Press, Stroud p. 199
  10. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 2003, vol. 2, p. 2755
  11. Burke's Landed Gentry, 1965, 18th edition, vol. 1, ed. Peter Townend, p. 87, 'Brocklebank formerly of Childwall Hall' pedigree
  12. The Visitation of England and Wales, vol. 9, ed. Joseph Jackson Howard and Frederick Arthur Crisp, 1901, p. 141-142, Brocklebank pedigree
  13. "No. 25728". The London Gazette. 9 August 1887. p. 4313.

Sources


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