Lieutenant-Colonel John By - Royal Engineers - Ottawa, Ontario
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Weathervane
N 45° 25.585 W 075° 41.824
18T E 445469 N 5030558
The statue of Lieutenant-Colonel John By is located in Major's Hill Park, on Mackenzie Avenue, in Ottawa, Ontario. Lieutenant-Colonel By served briefly under Wellington during the peninsular war and later supervised the building of the Rideau canal.
Waymark Code: WMY96R
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 05/13/2018
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member iconions
Views: 9

Text on the plaque:

John By

Lieutenant-Colonel
Royal Engineers

Lieutenant-colonel
ingénieur militaire


John By, lt-col, Royal Engineers (b at Lambeth, Eng and bap 10 Aug 1779; d at Frant, Eng 1 Feb 1836). By was one of the greatest early engineers in Canada. He built the 200 km Rideau Canal (1826-32) from Bytown (named for him, now Ottawa) to Kingston, involving construction of about 50 dams and 47 masonry locks. Without the aid of modern construction equipment, it was completed in 5 summer working seasons. By was born into a family of Thames watermen but was admitted in 1797 to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned in 1799, he served for 2 years at Plymouth before being sent to Canada in 1802. Here he worked on the first small locks on the St Lawrence R and on the fortifications of Québec.

Returning to England late in 1810, he served briefly under Wellington in the Peninsular War but early in 1812 was appointed engineer officer for the Royal Gunpowder Mills. Soon after the victory at Waterloo, munitions requirements being minimal, he was retired, but he was recalled in 1826 to build the Rideau Canal. On returning to England in 1832, despite his superb achievement, he was criticized by the Treasury Board for some allegedly unauthorized expenditures. He died, a broken man, 3 years later.

Reference: (visit link)
Website pertaining to the memorial: [Web Link]

List if there are any visiting hours:
Open 24 hours


Entrance fees (if it applies): Entry fees are not required to visit the park

Type of memorial: Statue

Visit Instructions:

*(1.)* Please submit a photo(s) taken by you of your visit to the location (non-copyrighted photos only). GPS photos are also accepted with the location in the background, and old vacation photos are accepted. If you are not able to provide a photo, then please describe your visit or give a story about the visit.
*(2.)* If you have additional information about the memorial which is not listed in the waymark description, please notify the waymark owner to have it added, and please post the information in your visit log.
Search for...
Geocaching.com Google Map
Google Maps
MapQuest
Bing Maps
Nearest Waymarks
Nearest Specific Veteran Memorials
Nearest Geocaches
Create a scavenger hunt using this waymark as the center point
Recent Visits/Logs:
Date Logged Log User Rating  
The Burrow visited Lieutenant-Colonel John By - Royal Engineers - Ottawa, Ontario 07/17/2019 The Burrow visited it
lindeye visited Lieutenant-Colonel John By - Royal Engineers - Ottawa, Ontario 10/20/2018 lindeye visited it
petendot visited Lieutenant-Colonel John By - Royal Engineers - Ottawa, Ontario 05/16/2018 petendot visited it
elyob visited Lieutenant-Colonel John By - Royal Engineers - Ottawa, Ontario 05/14/2018 elyob visited it
Metro2 visited Lieutenant-Colonel John By - Royal Engineers - Ottawa, Ontario 07/15/2017 Metro2 visited it
gemeloj visited Lieutenant-Colonel John By - Royal Engineers - Ottawa, Ontario 05/25/2016 gemeloj visited it

View all visits/logs