Harold Moody

Harold Arundel Moody (8 October 1882 – 24 April 1947) was a Jamaican-born physician who emigrated to the United Kingdom, where he campaigned against racial prejudice and established the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931 with the support of the Quakers.

Biography Harold Moody was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1882, the son of pharmacist Charles Ernest Moody and his wife Christina Emmeline Ellis. He completed his secondary education at Wolmer's Schools. In 1904, he sailed to the United Kingdom to study medicine at King's College London, finishing top of his class when he qualified in 1910, aged 28. Having been refused work because of his colour, he started his own medical practice in Peckham, south-east London, in February 1913.

In March 1931, Moody formed and became president of the League of Coloured Peoples (LCP), which was concerned with racial equality and civil rights in Britain and elsewhere in the world. Its first members included C. L. R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Una Marson, and Paul Robeson.

Having become a respected and influential doctor in Peckham, Moody was very involved in organising the local community during the Second World War. Historian Stephen Bourne has noted: "In 1944 there was a terrible bombing in south London and he was the first doctor on the scene. He played an important role in these events, saving many lives. Yet this wartime history is not known." Another son, Harold, was a British shot putter.

Moody's brother, Ludlow, also studied medicine at King's College London, where he won the Huxley Prize for physiology. Ludlow married Vera Manley and they moved to the Caribbean. Another brother was the sculptor Ronald Moody.

Legacy

The book Negro Victory: The Life Story of Dr Harold Moody, by David A. Vaughan, was published in 1950.

The National Portrait Gallery, London, has a bronze bust of Moody, cast in 1997 from a 1946 portrait, by his brother Ronald (1900–1984).

A short silent animation (by Jason Young) entitled The Story of Dr. Harold Moody, about his married life, was produced in 1998.

Dr Harold Moody Park in Nunhead was officially opened in 1999.

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

On 13 March 2019, a Nubian Jak Community Trust commemorative blue plaque was unveiled outside the YMCA Club at Tottenham Court Road, where the League of Coloured Peoples was founded at a meeting 88 years earlier.

On 1 September 2020, a Google Doodle celebrating Moody's life was shown, marking the day on which he arrived in the UK in 1904 to pursue his medical studies.

In 2020, Moody was featured in Stephen Bourne's book Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939–45 (The History Press).

In 2021, Stephen Bourne's eBook The Life of Dr Harold Moody was published by Pearson Education for use in primary schools (Key Stage 2, 9–11 years).

In February 2025, the Harold Moody Health Centre opened in Walworth, south London.