Biographical Sketch of Thomas Stafford Rubidge

Biographical Sketch of Thomas Stafford Rubidge

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From Association of Ontario Land Surveyors Report 1915 pp. 86-88.

THOMAS STAFFORD RUBIDGE.

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Mr. Rubidge was admitted to practice February 9th, 1849.

He was engaged upon the engineering staff of Williamsburg Canals, and resident engineer at Iroquois in 1884-48; 1852-60, engineering staff Grand Trunk Railway in charge of surveys and construction between Cornwall and Prescott; 1860-63, engineering staff Board of Works in charge of harbor and other surveys in Ontario; 1865-72, Intercolonial Railway surveys and construction in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; 1872-82, St. Lawrence Canals, engineer in charge of surveys for a 14-foot navigation, Lake St. Francis to Kingston; 1881-88, superintending engineer in charge of Trent Canal's surveys and construction; 1888-1904, superintending engineer St. Lawrence Canals for 14-foot navigation including intermediate river reaches. It was, however, as a hydraulic engineer that Mr. Rubidge was best known, and it was the improvement of the navigation of the River St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Kingston, to which his great experience and ability were principally directed.

Upon the death of Mr. John Page, in 1890, Mr. Rubidge was offered the position of Chief Engineer of Canals by the late Sir John A. Macdonald. This honor he declined as he preferred to devote his remaining years to the improvement of the St. Lawrence route. A few years ago it was intimated to him that he would be appointed one of the consulting engineers of the Panama Canal if he were willing to accept the position; this he also declined, and at the time of his death the commission for the construction of the New York barge canals were about to offer him the position of consulting engineer, he having been previously unofficially notified of their decision. As a hydraulic engineer, Mr. Rubidge was not only a man of great ability, but he was always abreast of the times. With him civil engineering was a progressive science, and he was ever ready to discard old methods the moment he found the modern ones were better.

It was not only as an engineer that Mr. Rubidge was known for we find that during the "Trent Affair" in October, 1861, he was requested by the General Officer Commanding to raise a field battery for service along the St. Lawrence River and Canals between Cornwall and Prescott. This he at once did, and for several years Captain Rubidge was in command of it. As a recognition of his services he received a medal from the Canadian Government a few years ago, and the deed to a grant of land in Northern Ontario from the Provincial Government.