Colonel Sir Colin Campbell Scott-Moncrieff (3 August 1836 – 6 April 1916) was a British engineer, soldier and civil servant, best known for repairing the Nile Barrage and reorganizing the irrigation system of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in the 1880s.

Early life and India

Scott-Moncrieff was born in 1836, the son of Robert Scott Moncrieff. After training at the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

's establishment in

Addiscombe Addiscombe is an area of south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is located south of Charing Cross, and is situated north of Coombe and Selsdon, east of Croydon town centre, south of Woodside, and west of Shirley. ...

, he was commissioned into the Bengal Engineers, party of the Company's private army which was soon integrated into the British army. He arrived in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in 1858, and was involved in clearing-up operations after the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

, but was soon employed in the Indian irrigation system, becoming Chief Engineer of the Jumna Canal, then Superintending Engineer of the Ganges Canal from 1869–77, and Chief Engineer of

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

until 1883. He was appointed a Companion of the

Order of the Star of India The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes: # Knight Grand Commander ( GCSI) # Knight Commander ( KCSI) # Companion ( CSI) No appointments ...

in 1878.

Egypt

Retiring with the honorary rank of Colonel, on his way home he was summoned to Cairo to meet Lord Dufferin who offered him "the keys of the Nile" – the position of Director of Irrigation for Egypt, then still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, but in practice controlled by the British. His first priority was the Nile Barrage, designed to retain water to irrigate the Delta, which had been built at great expense between 1843 and 1862 but soon abandoned when cracks appeared in its structure. Scott Moncrieff arranged for a trial closing of the gates allowing a limited operation, while carefully monitoring the cracks. The results were so successful in terms of improved agricultural yield that he was able to ask for, and get, a million pounds for a complete repair and strengthening of the Barrage, which was carried out between 1885 and 90. Over a period of nine years he reorganised the whole irrigation system and "was so successful in improving the whole irrigation system that Egypt, from being a bankrupt country, became comparatively flourishing". For his work in Egypt he was appointed KCMG.

After Egypt

Scott-Moncrieff returned to Britain in 1892 and served as Under-Secretary for Scotland from 1892 to 1902. From 1901 to 1903, at the invitation of

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...

, the Viceroy, Scott-Moncrieff served as President of a Commission to investigate and report on the prospects for further developing the Indian irrigation system. For this work he was promoted to a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in the 1903 Durbar Honours. His great-nephew was C.K. Scott-Moncrieff, the famed first translator into English of

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...

's ''Remembrance of Things Past''.Findlay, J (2014): Chasing Lost Time The Life of C.K. Scott Moncrieff: Soldier, Spy and Translator. London: Vintage

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott-Moncrieff, Colin Royal Engineers officers 1836 births 1916 deaths Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George British East India Company Army officers Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard 19th-century British Army personnel British colonels