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Proby Cautley | |
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 Portrait of Proby Cautley | |
| Born | Proby Cautley 3 January 1802 |
| Died | 25 January 1871 (aged 69) |
Sir Proby Thomas Cautley, KCB (3 January 1802 – 25 January 1871), English engineer and palaeontologist, born in Stratford St Mary, Suffolk,[1] is best known for conceiving and supervising the construction of the Ganges canal during East India Company rule in India. The canal stretches some 350 miles between its headworks at Haridwar and, after bifurcation near Aligarh, its confluences with the Ganges river mainstem in Kanpur and the Yamuna river in Etawah.[2] At the time of completion, it had the greatest discharge of any irrigation canal in the world.[2]
Proby Cautley was educated at Charterhouse School (1813–18), followed by the East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe (1818–19). After less than a year there, he was commissioned second lieutenant and dispatched to India, joining the Bengal Presidency artillery in Calcutta. In 1825, he assisted Captain Robert Smith, the engineer in charge of constructing the Eastern Yamuna canal, also called the Doab canal. He was in charge of this canal for 12 years between 1831 and 1843. By 1836, he was Superintendent-General of Canals.
Cautley is also known for his research in collaboration with Hugh Falconer on fossils found in India, particularly those found in the Siwalik Hills, for which he was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1846.[3]
- ^ History of Physical Anthropology - Frank Spencer - Google Books Retrieved 2016-11-03.
- ^ a b Stone (2002) p.18
- ^ "A memoir of Colonel Sir Proby Cautley, F. R. S., 1802-1871, engineer and palaeontologist". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 34 (2): 185–225. 29 February 1980. doi:10.1098/rsnr.1980.0008. ISSN 0035-9149.