Proby Cautley

Sir Proby Thomas Cautley, KCB (3 January 1802 – 25 January 1871), was an English engineer and palaeontologist who is best known for having conceived and supervised 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. At the time of completion, it had the greatest discharge of any irrigation canal in the world.

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, he was commissioned as a 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 had become Superintendent-General of Canals.

Cautley is also known for his research on fossils found in India, particularly those found in the Siwalik Hills, which he conducted in collaboration with Hugh Falconer. In 1846, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society for this work.