Findlay was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 1 December 1874. He was a lieutenant-colonel of the engineer and railway volunteer staff corps, justice of the peace for Middlesex, and from 1889 an alderman of the county council. At the Paris Exhibition in 1889 he acted as vice-president of a committee formed for the purpose of exhibiting a collection of appliances, past and present, used in the conveyance of passengers and merchandise, and was created a chevalier of the legion of honour. He was knighted on 21 May 1892. Findlay died on 26 March 1893 at his residence, Hill House, Edgware, Middlesex, and was buried at Whitchurch on 30 March.