Acadiensis/Volume 2/Number 1/Colonel Robert Moodie

To the Editor of Acadiensis:

Sir,—If you will refer to my Sketches of Celebrated Canadians (Quebec, 1862), you will find there (p. 335) an account of Colonel Robert Moodie, respecting whom enquiry is made, in your last issue, by Mr. C. E. Thomson, President of the York Pioneer Society, Ontario. From this sketch it will be seen that Colonel Moodie was a native of Dunfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland, that he entered the army at an early age, and saw much severe fighting during the Peninsular war. He served in Canada, in the 104th Regiment, of which he became Lieutenant-Colonel, during the war of 1812, and distinguished himself in many sharp affairs with the enemy. He was present at the battle of Queenstown, where he acted with great bravery. About the year 1822, he returned to Scotland, and resided at St. Andrews, for the education of his family. He continued there until 1835, when he again came to Canada, for the purpose of taking possession of a valuable and extensive tract of land, which he had acquired near Toronto, and where he was killed by the insurgents in December, 1838. He left behind his widow, a Canadian lady, of Scottish extraction, two sons and three daughters. The circumstances of his death are fully set forth in Dent's Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion (2 vols., Toronto, 1885), who, after briefly noting the facts in his career, adds: "It seemed a fatality that he should pass unscathed through the perils of two hard-fought campaigns in the Peninsula to fall by the bullet of an unknown insurgent in a petty encounter in front of an obscure wayside inn in Upper Canada." The dates of his several commissions in the army are given in the Royal Military Calendar as under: Lieutenant, 12th January, 1796; Lieutenant 28th Foot, 20th January, 1796; Captain 11th West India Regiment, 21st March, 1800; Captain 104th Foot, 9th July, 1803; Major, 20th June, 1811; and Lieutenant-Colonel, 27th October, 1814, after which he was placed upon half pay.

483 Bank St, Ottawa, Nov. 23, 1901.