Harold Moody

Harold Arundel Moody^[1] (8 October 1882–24 April 1947) was a physician in London who established the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 with the support of the Quakers.

Biography

Moody was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1882, the son of pharmacist Charles Ernest Moody and his wife Christina Emmeline Ellis.^[2] In 1904, he sailed to the United Kingdom to study medicine at King's College London. Having been refused work because of his colour, he started his own medical practice in Peckham in February 1932.^[2][3]

In March 1931 Harold Moody formed the League of Coloured Peoples, which was concerned with racial equality and civil rights in Britain and elsewhere in the world.

He also campaigned against racial prejudice in the armed forces, and is credited with overturning the Special Restriction Order (or Coloured Seamen's Act) of 1925, a discriminatory measure that sought to provide subsidies to merchant shipping employing only British nationals and required alien seamen (many of whom had served the United Kingdom during the First World War) to register with their local police. Many black and Asian British nationals had no proof of identity and were made redundant.

A devout Christian, Moody was active in the Congregational Union, the Colonial Missionary Society (of which he was chairman) and later the Christian Endeavour Union (1936).^[2]

Family life

In 1913, Moody married Olive Tranter, a nurse with whom he worked at the Royal Eye Hospital.

Moody's brother Ludlow also studied medicine in London and won the Huxley Prize for physiology at King's. Ludlow married Vera Manley and both returned to the Caribbean. Another brother was the sculptor Ronald Moody. Charles Arundel Moody, Harold's son, became an officer in the British Army, rising to the rank of colonel.

Legacy

The house where Moody lived at 164 Queen's Road, Peckham, now has a green plaque dedicated to him.

A short silent animation about his married life was produced entitled The Story of Dr. Harold Moody.

Moody is named on the list of 100 Great Black Britons.

References

External links

• "Harold Moody", Making Britain, The Open University.
• "Harold Moody", Spartacus Educational.
• "Harold Moody British Civil Rights Leader 1930's".