Thomas Frederick Colby

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Thomas Frederick Colby (September 1, 1784 – October 9, 1852), a British major-general and director of the Ordnance Survey (OS), was born at St. Margaret's, Rochester, Kent, as a member of a South Wales family. Entering the Royal Engineers he overcame the loss of one hand in a shooting accident to begin in 1802 a lifelong connection with the Ordnance Survey. His most important work was the Survey of Ireland. He began planning this enormous enterprise in 1824 and directed it until 1846, in which year the final maps made by the survey were almost ready for issue. By that stage he had become a major-general and, according to the rules of the service, had to vacate his survey appointment and retire. He was the inventor of the "Colby Bar" (a compensation bar), an apparatus used in base-measurements.

A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and many other professional organisations, Colby was one of the leading geographers of his time. He died at New Brighton.

Colby House, the headquarters of the OS N. Ireland, is named in his honour.

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.