Richard Moon

Richard Moon was born in Liverpool (birth registered on 23 September 1814), the elder son 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. 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. 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 died in Brazil. 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. 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. As chairman, concerned with costs, he concentrated locomotive construction at Crewe, and carriage construction at Wolverton. ==Other railways==

Moon also founded the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales, in association with George Assheton-Smith, which opened in 1896. ==Personal life==

Moon lived in Bevere, a small hamlet on the banks of the River Severn, in Claines parish, Worcestershire, from 1849 to 1863. 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. 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 ==