Richard Moon

Sir Richard Moon, 1st Baronet (1814–1899) was the leading executive of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) during its heyday as the largest public company in the world. He was chairman from June 1861 until he retired on 22 February 1891. Early life Richard Moon was born in Liverpool (the birth was registered on 23 September 1814), the elder son of merchant Richard Moon (1783-1842) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Bradley Frodsham, of Liverpool. 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 passed away 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. 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.