Around 1815, with his training complete, Thomas Burrowes was posted to Canada where he served for a number of years – much of the time at Fort Henry in Kingston. He advanced to the rank of corporal and, in 1824, returned to England and civilian life. It was not long, however, before he was lured back to Canada. The Rideau Canal was on the drawing board in the 1820s, and in 1826 Lieutenant-Colonel Durnford (commander of the Royal Engineers in Canada) recommended Burrowes for a position on the team that was assembling in Montreal that year with orders to proceed up the Ottawa River and to build a military canal to join it to Lake Ontario.

A view of Kingston from the slopes of Fort Henry in 1828, very much as Thomas Burrowes would have seen it just a few years earlier.