Lieutenant-Colonel John By (August 7, 1779 – February 1, 1836) was an English military engineer, best remembered for supervising the construction of the Rideau Canal and, in the process, founding what would become the city of Ottawa.

Born in Lambeth in London, England in 1779, By studied at the Royal Military Academy. He was commissioned in the Royal Artillery on 1 August 1799 but transferred to the Royal Engineers on 20 December the same year. In 1802 he was posted to Canada for the first time, where he worked on the fortification of Quebec City and on improving the navigability of the Saint Lawrence River. During the Napoleonic wars he returned to Europe, where he served in Spain under the Duke of Wellington from 1811 until 1815.

With the end of the war By retired from the military but in 1826, in view of his engineering experience in Canada, he was recalled and returned to Canada to supervise the construction of the Rideau Canal. Since the canal was to begin in the wild and sparsely populated Ottawa River valley, his first task was the construction of a town to house the men who were to work on the canal, and associated services. The resulting settlement, called Bytown in his honour, would later become famous under the new name of Ottawa.

The canal was completed in six years, and was acclaimed as an engineering triumph. Upon his return to London, however, By faced accusations about the finances of the project. Officials of the British Treasury Board suggested that he had made a number of unauthorised expenditures, and By spent the remaining years of his life attempting to clear his name. He died in 1836 and is buried in the village of Frant in East Sussex in the South East of England.

John By's name lives on in a number of contexts:

• The Byward Market area of Ottawa's Lower Town
• His statue, executed by Joseph-Emile Brunet and unveiled in 1971, stands in nearby Major's Hill Park
• Ottawa's Colonel By Secondary School
• The scenic parkway of Colonel By Drive, which follows the first stretch of the canal through the city from Lower Town to the falls at Hogs Back
• The engineering building of the University of Ottawa
• In 1979, to commemorate the bicentenary of his birth, Canada Post issued a stamp bearing his image
• In Ottawa, Colonel By Day is the name given to the Ontario August civic holiday
• The Scotch Irish Brewing company out of Carleton Place, ON created a 'John By Imperial Stout' beer, with the likeness of the Colonel on the label.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Biography from the Dictionary of National Biography (1901)
• Bytown Museum
• Bye By - The full story of Lt. Colonel John By's fall from grace