SCOTT-MONCRIEFF

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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3.8.1836 Fossoway/UK - 6.4.1916 Chelsea/UK

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Colin Campbell Scott-Moncrieff was educated at Academy of Edinburgh. He was commissioned in 1856 as second lieutenant and posted to the Bengal engineers. During the Indian Mutiny from 1857 to 1858 he served in Oudh. Scott-Moncrieff was from 1859 to 1861 assigned assistant engineer on Jumna Canal of the Irrigation Department of the North-West Provinces. From 1861 to 1864 he served as assistant principal of the Roorkee College and for the next three years was chief engineer of Jumna Canal. Then, from 1869 to 1877 Scott-Moncrieff was the superintending engineer of the Ganges Canal previously executed by Sir Proby Cautley (1802-1871). The next three years were spent as chief engineer of Burma from where he retired in 1883. On returning from India to England, he was stopped by Lord Dufferin in Egypt and asked to report on the Delta irrigation. This was the period of nine years' further work during which Scott-Moncrieff reconstructed the poorly designed Delta barrage. He was so successful in improving the whole irrigation system that Egypt, from being a bankrupt country, became comparatively flourishing.

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Scott-Moncrieff also investigated the control of the Nile waters, which led to the construction of Aswan Dam. Another improvement which was much to his heart was the abolition of the system of forced labor. He had taken the challenge to complete the 520 m long Damietta Dam in 1889 and the 440 m long Rosetta Dam in the Nile Delta. The results were instantaneous: Drainage and irrigation of the Delta permitted a large increase in agricultural production, rendering improved financial condition for the country. Scott-Moncrieff was created a KCMG for his services. Retiring from Egypt in 1892 he was an Under Secretary for Scotland until 1902. In 1901 he was appointed Chairman of a Commission on Indian Irrigation and on conclusion was promoted KCSI.

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_{Anonymous (1916). Sir Colin Campbell Scott-Moncrieff. Engineering 101: 356-357.}

_{Anonymous (1916). Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff. Engineer 121: 311-312.}

_{Baker Brown, W. (1952). Colonel Sir Colin C. Scott-Moncrieff. History of the Corps of Royal Engineers 4: 393-394. Longmans&Green: London.}

_{Biswas, A.K. (1970). History of hydrology. North-Holland: Amsterdam. Hollings, A.A. (1917). The life of Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff. Murray: London. P}

_{Riddick, J.F. (1998). Scott-Moncrieff. Who was who in British India: 324. Greenwood: Westport.}

_{Scott-Moncrieff, C. (1868). Irrigation in Southern Europe: France, Spain, Italy. Spon: London. Scott-Moncrieff, C., Willcocks, W. (1891). Nile reservoirs. National printing: Cairo.}