John Pennycuick (British engineer)

Colonel John Pennycuick CSI (15 January 1841, Pune - 9 March 1911, Camberley) was a British Army engineer and civil servant who served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council when parts of the Indian subcontinent were under Colonial rule of the British East India Company. He undertook several irrigation works which included the masonry dam of Mullaiperiyar on the Periyar River.

Pennycuick was born on 15 January 1841 at Pune, a younger son of Brigadier-General John Pennycuick and his wife Sarah. His father and eldest brother, Alexander, fought and died at the Battle of Chillianwalla in 1849. He was educated at Cheltenham College.

Pennycuick entered the East India Company Military College at Addiscombe, Surrey, in 1857, and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Madras Engineer Group in December 1858. He arrived in India on 11 November 1860. He became a Second Captain on 15 October 1870; and a major on 8 December 1876. He commanded H company at Zoulla during the Abyssinian campaign of 1868. On 10 October 1895 the Queen nominated him a Companion of the Order of the Star of India. He served in the Public Works Department till January 1896. During his six years of service in the PWD, Pennycuick served as Chief Engineer in the construction of the Mullaperiyar Dam and was awarded a medal for his participation in Abyssinian Expedition of 1867-68.