Glenlyon, the marchioness of Waterford, Lady Rodney and Mrs Beauclerk. In his portraits of generals and sportsmen he proved himself more equal to his subjects than in those of statesmen and men of letters. He painted many of the principal celebrities of the time, including Scott, Macaulay, Lockhart, Disraeli, Hardinge, Gough, Derby, Palmerston and Russell, his brother Sir J. Hope Grant and his friend Sir Edwin Landseer. From the first his career was rapidly prosperous. In 1842 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1851 an Academician; and in 1866 he was chosen to succeed Sir C. Eastlake in the post of president, for which his chief recommendations were his social distinction, tact, urbanity and friendly and liberal consideration of his brother artists. Shortly after his election as president he was knighted, and in 1870 the degree of D.C.L. was conferred upon him by the university of Oxford. He died on the 5th of October 1878.
GRANT, GEORGE MONRO (1835–1902), principal of Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, was born in Nova Scotia in 1835. He was educated at Glasgow university, where he had a brilliant academic career; and having entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, he returned to Canada and obtained a pastoral charge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which he held from
1863 to 1877. He quickly gained a high reputation as a preacher
and as an eloquent speaker on political subjects. When Canada
was confederated in 1867 Nova Scotia was the province most
strongly opposed to federal union. Grant threw the whole
weight of his great influence in favour of confederation, and his
oratory played an important part in securing the success of
the movement. When the consolidation of the Dominion by
means of railway construction was under discussion in 1872,
Grant travelled from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the engineers
who surveyed the route of the Canadian Pacific railway, and his
book Ocean to Ocean (1873) was one of the first things that opened
the eyes of Canadians to the value of the immense heritage
they enjoyed. He never lost an opportunity, whether in the
pulpit or on the platform, of pressing on his hearers that the
greatest future for Canada lay in unity with the rest of the
British Empire; and his broad statesman-like judgment made him
an authority which politicians of all parties were glad to consult.
In 1877 Grant was appointed principal of Queen’s University,
Kingston, Ontario, which through his exertions and influence
expanded from a small denominational college into a large and
influential educational centre; and he attracted to it an exceptionally
able body of professors whose influence in speculation
and research was widely felt during the quarter of a century that
he remained at its head. In 1888 he visited Australia, New
Zealand and South Africa, the effect of this experience being to
strengthen still further the Imperialism which was the guiding
principle of his political opinions. On the outbreak of the South
African War in 1899 Grant was at first disposed to be hostile
to the policy of Lord Salisbury and Mr Chamberlain; but his
eyes were soon opened to the real nature of President Kruger’s
government, and he enthusiastically welcomed and supported the
national feeling which sent men from the outlying portions of the
Empire to assist in upholding British supremacy in South Africa.
Grant did not live to see the conclusion of peace, his death occurring
at Kingston on the 10th of May 1902. At the time of his
death The Times observed that “it is acknowledged on all hands
that in him the Dominion has lost one of the ablest men that it
has yet produced.” He was the author of a number of works, of
which the most notable besides Ocean to Ocean are, Advantages of Imperial Federation (1889), Our National Objects and Aims (1890),
Religions of the World in Relation to Christianity (1894) and
volumes of sermons and lectures. Grant married in 1872 Jessie,
daughter of William Lawson of Halifax.
GRANT, JAMES (1822–1887), British novelist, was born in
Edinburgh on the 1st of August 1822. His father, John Grant, was
a captain in the 92nd Gordon Highlanders and had served through
the Peninsular War. For several years James Grant was in Newfoundland
with his father, but in 1839 he returned to England,
and entered the 62nd Foot as an ensign. In 1843 he resigned
his commission and devoted himself to writing, first magazine
articles, but soon a profusion of novels, full of vivacity and
incident, and dealing mainly with military scenes and characters.
His best stories, perhaps, were The Romance of War (his first,
1845), Bothwell (1851), Frank Hilton; or, The Queen’s Own (1855),
The Phantom Regiment and Harry Ogilvie (1856), Lucy Arden
(1858), The White Cockade (1867), Only an Ensign (1871), Shall
I Win Her? (1874), Playing with Fire (1887). Grant also wrote
British Battles on Land and Sea (1873–1875) and valuable books
on Scottish history. Permanent value attaches to his great
work, in three volumes, on Old and New Edinburgh (1880).
He was the founder and energetic promoter of the National
Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights. In 1875 he
became a Roman Catholic. He died on the 5th of May 1887.
GRANT, JAMES AUGUSTUS (1827–1892), Scottish explorer of
eastern equatorial Africa, was born at Nairn, where his father
was the parish minister, on the 11th of April 1827. He was
educated at the grammar school and Marischal College, Aberdeen,
and in 1846 joined the Indian army. He saw active service in the
Sikh War (1848–49), served throughout the mutiny of 1857,
and was wounded in the operations for the relief of Lucknow.
He returned to England in 1858, and in 1860 joined J. H. Speke
(q.v.) in the memorable expedition which solved the problem of
the Nile sources. The expedition left Zanzibar in October 1860
and reached Gondokoro, where the travellers were again in touch
with civilization, in February 1863. Speke was the leader, but
Grant carried out several investigations independently and made
valuable botanical collections. He acted throughout in absolute
loyalty to his comrade. In 1864 he published, as supplementary
to Speke’s account of their journey, A Walk across Africa, in
which he dealt particularly with “the ordinary life and pursuits,
the habits and feelings of the natives” and the economic value
of the countries traversed. In 1864 he was awarded the patron’s
medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and in 1866 given the
Companionship of the Bath in recognition of his services in
the expedition. He served in the intelligence department of the
Abyssinian expedition of 1868; for this he was made C.S.I. and
received the Abyssinian medal. At the close of the war he retired from the army with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He had married in 1865, and he now settled down at Nairn, where he died on the 11th of February 1892. He made contributions to the journals of various learned societies, the most notable being the “Botany of the Speke and Grant Expedition” in vol. xxix. of the Transactions of the Linnaean Society.
GRANT, SIR JAMES HOPE (1808–1875), English general, fifth and youngest son of Francis Grant of Kilgraston, Perthshire, and brother of Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A., was born on the 22nd of July 1808. He entered the army in 1826 as cornet in the 9th Lancers, and became lieutenant in 1828 and captain in 1835. In 1842 he was brigade-major to Lord Saltoun in the Chinese War, and specially distinguished himself at the capture of Chin-Kiang, after which he received the rank of major and the C.B. In the first Sikh War of 1845–46 he took part in the battle of Sobraon; and in the Punjab campaign of 1848–49 he commanded the 9th Lancers, and won high reputation in the battles of Chillianwalla and Guzerat (Gujarat). He was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel and shortly afterwards to the same substantive rank. In 1854 he became brevet-colonel, and in 1856 brigadier of cavalry. He took a leading part in the suppression of the Indian mutiny of 1857, holding for some time the command of the cavalry division, and afterwards of a movable column of horse and foot. After rendering valuable service in the operations before Delhi and in the final assault on the city, he directed the victorious march of the cavalry and horse artillery despatched in the direction of Cawnpore to open up communication with the commander-in-chief Sir Colin Campbell, whom he met near the Alambagh, and who raised him to the rank of brigadier-general, and placed the whole force under his command during what remained of the perilous march to Lucknow for the relief of the residency. After the retirement towards Cawnpore he greatly aided in effecting there the total rout of the rebel troops, by making a detour which threatened their rear; and following in pursuit with a flying column, he defeated them with the loss of
