Montgomery-Moore was born in Chicopee, Massachusetts in 1899, to Alexander Acheson Montgomery-Moore, who was born in Cork, Ireland and moved to the United States in 1890, and Lillian Webber Montgomery-Moore, born in New Hampshire. The family moved to Bermuda in 1909.
Following the First World War, Montgomery-Moore returned to Bermuda. In 1931, the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers was created as a replacement for the departed regular Royal EngineersFortress Company of the Bermuda Garrison. The original role of the BVE was to operate the search lights at coastal artillery batteries, notably the Examination Battery at St. David's Head, the guns of which were manned by the Bermuda Militia Artillery. The BVE subsequently also took on responsibility for providing signals crew and equipment to all elements of the garrison. The first commanding officer of the BVE was Captain H.D. Butterfield, and Lieutenant Montgomery-Moore was second-in-command. In 1932, Butterfield retired, and Montgomery-Moore succeeded him. The new 2-i-c was Lieutenant Bayard Dill, whose father, Colonel Thomas Melville Dill, was a former commander of the BMA.
The BVE, like the other part-time units, was mobilised at the start of the Second World War, fulfilling its role to the Garrison throughout the war. Some members also were detached for service overseas with other units. These included four Sappers who were attached to a larger BVRC contingent despatched to the Lincolnshire Regiment in June 1940, and Captain Richard Gorham, who served in Italy, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross for his decisive role in the Battle of Monte Cassino. In Bermuda, Montgomery-Moore was promoted to Major in 1940, and Bayard Dill to Captain. In addition to his role with the BVE, Montgomery-Moore also headed the Bermuda Flying School, which trained 80 local volunteers as pilots for the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm. Volunteers were only accepted from those already serving in the local forces, some of whom came from the BVE. After 1942, with the RAF having a glut of trained pilots, the school converted into the Bermuda Flying Committee, a recruiting arm for the Royal Canadian Air Force, to which it sent sixty aircrew trainees, as well as twenty-two women to train for ground roles. The BFC was administered by Montgomery-Moore, as well as Bertram Work and others previously associated with the BFS. Montgomery-Moore had been dispatched to Canada to make arrangements for it to send its aircrew candidates, and he received a commendation from the RCAF at the end of the war for his efforts.
Post-War
The BVE was demobilised in 1946, as were the other three territorials and the Home Guard. The BVRC and the BMA maintained skeleton command structures until they began recruiting again in 1951. The BVE, however, with its two main roles becoming obsolete, was disbanded completely. Montgomery-Moore was discharged on 25 January 1946, and returned to civilian life, eventually settling in Connecticut, where he died in 1970. Peter Kilduff posthumously published Montgomery-Moore's memoirs as That's My Bloody Plane. His wife, Hélène, gave gifts to Columbia University in New York, and funded the Mrs. Cecil Montgomery-Moore Scholarship for journalism, in memory of Alice Weel Bigart
