Like his first cousins Felix (see Additional Chapter X) and Edward Francis (see here) in early life Edward Moore was an officer in the East India Company's Mercantile Marine Service which he joined in 1810. In 1811 and 1813 he served on the Cabalva as a midshipman for its voyages to Bombay and China. In 1815 he was again on the Cabalva for the same destinations but this time as Sixth Mate, the next rung up the ladder of promotion. Still on the same ship, but as Fourth Mate, he survived its total loss off Cargados shoal in the Indian Ocean in 1818 when bound for China. He is known to have written an account of the wreck, the ensuing sufferings of the officers and crew and their ultimate rescue but this has not survived. He came home on the Orient, a private ship, as Second Mate. In 1819 he is recorded as Third Mate of the Lady Melville, and in 1820 with the same rank and on the same ship the voyage was to China from London via St. Helena, Bombay and Bengal lasting twelve months. By 1824 he had become Second Mate on the Lady Melville, when its Far Eastern voyage in that year was to Macao via Madras, Penang and Malacca returning via St. Helena. He eventually was promoted to be Commander of the E.I.C. ship Ganges when the voyages in 1829/30 and 1831/32 were to Bengal and Madras respectively. In 1833 the East India Company Marine Service ceased and no doubt Edward Moore received a pension.
    In 1839 he married his first cousin Beatrice Jane, to whom he had long been attached. She was the second daughter of John Boultbee of Baxterley Hall and his wife Maria Anne Croxall. Beatrice Jane died in 1893.
    He became the first Chief Constable of the Bedfordshire police being entirely responsible for the constabulary's proper establishment. This was only the second county force to be founded. He was appointed in 1840 and retired in 1871. We have some details of the circumstances of his appointment, how the Force was to be set up, and the equipment of a constable which we think are worth recording here.
    In 1839 the Justices of the Peace of Bedfordshire took advantage of the County Police Act of Parliament passed that year and arranged that the appointment of County and District Constables would be brought under consideration of the next Court of General Quarter Sessions at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Tuesday, the 31st December, 1839. A committee was formed to decide upon the organisation of such a Force. It recommended that it should be composed of one Chief Constable at an annual salary of £250, a horse to be purchased for his use; six Superintendents at an annual salary of £75, and 40 Constables at a weekly wage of 19 shillings, with free clothing and accoutrements. In addition to a clothing allowance of one shilling and sixpence per week a constable's uniform was to consist of a hat, a stock (which was a kind of neckcloth), a greatcoat, a cape and a strap coatee (probably what we would call a waistcoat), two pairs of trousers, boots, shoes and a belt. His equipment to include a truncheon, lanthorn, handcuffs, button stick, brush, a Book of Instructions and a Catechism of Law.
    Six men applied for the post of Chief Constable, one of them being a celebrated Bow Street Runner, of the London Police Force, which was formed in 1829, and Edward Moore was appointed by the General Quarter Sessions at Bedford on February 18, 1840, the Court directing him to look out for suitable men to become Superintendents and Constables. A condition of his appointment was that he should live at Ampthill, Bedfordshire and set up his office there, but he could find no suitable premises and was allowed to live in Bedford instead.