Colonel By Lake is named in honour of Lieutenant-Colonel John By, Royal Engineers. The lake was named on November 4, 1971 by the Government of Ontario. It is located approximately 10 km northeast of Kingston.
John By was born in Lambeth (London) England in 1779 and graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in 1799. He joined the Royal Engineers on December 20 of the same year and in 1802 was posted to Canada for the first time, where he worked on the fortification of Quebec City and on the construction of a canal at Iles aux Cascades. During the Napoleonic wars he returned to Europe, where he served in Spain under the Duke of Wellington from 1811 until 1815. In 1826, he returned to Canada to supervise the construction of the Rideau Canal. His first task was the construction of a town to house the men who were to work on the canal. The resulting settlement, called Bytown, would later be named Ottawa. The 200 km canal was completed in 6 years, and was acclaimed as an engineering triumph. However, Colonel By was recalled to London to face accusations that he had made a number of unauthorized expenditures. The charges were spurious and a parliamentary committee exonerated him. He died in 1836 and is buried in the village of Frant in East Sussex, southeast of England.
