Sir Collingwood Schreiber, (December 14, 1831 – March 23, 1918) was an

English Canadian English Canadians (french: Canadiens anglais or ), or Anglo-Canadians (french: Anglo-Canadiens), refers to either Canadians of English ethnic origin and heritage or to English-speaking or Anglophone Canadians of any ethnic origin; it is use ...

surveyor,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and civil servant. He is best known for his contribution to the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

Biography

Schreiber was born in

Bradwell-on-Sea Bradwell-on-Sea is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. The village is on the Dengie peninsula. It is located about north-northeast of Southminster and is east from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the District of Mal ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to the Reverend Thomas Schreiber and Sarah Bingham. His father's grandfather, Johann Karl Schreiber emigrated from Swabia,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to England in the mid-18th century. His mother's father was rear admiral

Joseph Bingham Joseph Bingham (September 1668 – 17 August 1723) was an English scholar and divine, who wrote on ecclesiastical history. Life He was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire. He was educated at Wakefield Grammar School and University College, Oxf ...

, and her grandfather was vice-admiral

Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet, of Harburn Admiral Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet (1 January 1743 – 31 October 1802), was a British naval commander. Naval career William Parker's father, Augustine Parker, had been mayor of Queenborough, Isle of Sheppey, Kent and a commander of one o ...

. Schreiber trained in England, and then emigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1852, along with the rest of his family. He shortly thereafter began work as a railway engineer with the

Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway was a railway based in Hamilton that ran in Southern Ontario from 1892 to 1987. It never reached the other two cities in its name, although it did have branch lines extending to Dunnville and Port Maitl ...

. After four years with the firm, Schreiber left to work with Sir

Sandford Fleming Sir Sandford Fleming (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridian, ...

. After working on various private railways, in 1864 Schreiber received his first government appointment, and by 1873 he was the chief engineer for all government railways. Schreiber became intimately involved in the construction of the CPR. In June 1880, Schreiber was appointed by

Sir Charles Tupper Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet, (July 2, 1821 – October 30, 1915) was a Canadian Father of Confederation who served as the sixth prime minister of Canada from May 1 to July 8, 1896. As the premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led ...

, who was then the Minister of Railways and Canals, to replace Fleming as the chief engineer for the project, and by July of that same year had become

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of all government railways in operation. He arranged financing and conducted repeated inspection tours, often with Sir

William Cornelius Van Horne Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, (February 3, 1843September 11, 1915) is most famous for overseeing the construction of the first Canadian transcontinental railway, a project that was completed in 1885, in under half the projected time. He succe ...

, who was appointed CPR president in 1881. In 1887, Schreiber was a founding member of the

Canadian Society of Civil Engineers The Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) (French: l'Institut canadien des ingénieurs; ICI) is a federation of fourteen engineering societies based in Canada, covering a broad range of engineering branches, and with a history going back to 1887. F ...

. In 1892 he was made the deputy minister of railways and canals. In 1893, he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and, in 1916, a Knight Commander. In 1905 he took a position as consulting engineer on the western or

Grand Trunk Pacific The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...

division of the National Transcontinental Railway". Schreiber continued in government service until his death in 1918. Despite living in an era rife with corruption, Schreiber always paid more attention to engineering than political concerns. He found a job for

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Sir

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

's nephew, but flatly refused to promote people with influence unless their performance merited it. He repeatedly clashed with political "meddlers", and was disliked by various ministers in the Macdonald and Laurier administrations he served under. Schreiber died in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The township of

Schreiber, Ontario Schreiber is a municipal township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located on the northernmost point of Lake Superior along Highway 17. The town, with a population of approximately 1100 people, is almost completely located inside the geogr ...

, is named after him and contains a plaque commemorating his life and achievements.

Notes

External links

* *
Ontario Plaques - Sir Collingwood Schreiber
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schreiber, Collingwood 1831 births 1918 deaths Canadian engineers Canadian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George People from Maldon District