John By

John By (born 1781, London, England—died February 1, 1836, Shernfold Park, Sussex) was an English military engineer whose Rideau Canal, connecting the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario (1832), gave great impetus to the development of the city of Ottawa. One of the oldest continuously operated canals in North America, the Rideau Canal was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007.

By, commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1799, worked in Canada (1802–11) on the fortification of Quebec and was charged with the building of a canal at Les Cèdres on the St. Lawrence. As a lieutenant colonel, he was sent again to Canada in 1826 to design and construct the Rideau Canal between the Ottawa River and Kingston on Lake Ontario. He began construction at a point near the junction of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, at which a settlement that became known as Bytown developed; the future federal capital, it was incorporated as a town in 1850 and as the city of Ottawa in 1855.

Soon after the opening of the canal in 1832, By was recalled to London to face an inquiry by the British Parliament into cost overruns on the project and charges of financial impropriety against him. The canal construction had far exceeded the optimistic estimate made before the project was started. Although By had approval for the expensive large canal locks that he built, the original vague orders he received, along with the poor communication between By in Canada and the British Ordnance and Parliament in Great Britain, contributed to the Rideau Canal becoming the most expensive military-financed public works project undertaken in any British colony in the 19th century. Eventually, By was cleared of all charges.