It's been nearly 160 years since Col. Richard Clement Moody surveyed his way from New Westminster to the shores of Burrard Inlet, in the process building North Road and planting the seeds of the small city that would bear his name.
And about 150 years have passed since Moody left the area and returned to England, where he died in 1887 and was buried at St. Peter's Church in Bournemouth.
At some point in the last 128 years, Moody's descendants stopped maintaining his gravesite and, according to a staff report presented to Port Moody council Tuesday, the memorial has fallen into disrepair.
David Spence, a retired PoMo minister who donned a replica of Moody's uniform to play the role of the city's namesake during its centennial celebrations in 2013, visited the gravesite last year and found there was minimal upkeep (the churchyard and cemetery grounds are the responsibility of the Bournemouth borough council but individual graves are not).
PoMo staff contacted St. Peter's and were referred to a local funeral home, Head and Wheble Ltd., that offers such a maintenance service, including cleaning the memorial and removing any debris.
Council agreed to pay 90 (approximately $169) and use photos to evaluate the condition of the grave after one year. (The funeral home also offers long-term maintenance contracts that would cost about $846 for a five-year term or $1,700 for 10 years.)
New Westminster has referred a similar request for funding to its director of museums; council there has not yet received a report on the matter.
@spayneTC
