[2] Proby Cautley was educated at Charterhouse School (1813–18), followed by the East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe (1818–19).

Cautley began working towards his dream of building a Ganges canal, and spent six months walking and riding through the area taking each measurement himself.

There were many obstacles and objections to his project, mostly financial, but Cautley persevered and eventually persuaded the British East India Company to back him.

This project was sanctioned in 1841, but the work was not begun till 1843, and even then Cautley found himself hampered in its execution by the opposition of Lord Ellenborough.

Near Roorkee, the land fell away sharply and Cautley had to build an aqueduct to carry the canal for half a kilometre.

From 1845 to 1848 he was absent in England owing to ill-health, and on his return to India he was appointed director of canals in the North-Western Provinces.

Since 2000, when the city became the state capital, most of the heritage canal network has been covered or demolished to expand the roads for ever-increasing traffic.

[6] After the Ganges canal was opened in 1854 he went back to England, where he was made KCB, and from 1858 to 1868 he occupied a seat on the Council of India.