| Administrative History | James Grant was born at Garmouth, Morayshire, on 11 October 1837. His parents died in 1845, and he was brought up by his grandmother in Rothes, near Elgin, remaining there until 1855, when he ran away to sea. After spending some time working in Newcastle-on-Tyne he took employment as a sapper with the Honourable East India Company and sailed to India in 1858. In consequence of the break-up of the HEIC's forces in September of that year following the events of the Indian Mutiny and the adoption of direct Crown rule in India, he transferred to the Corps of Bengal Sappers and Miners and moved to their headquarters at Roorkee. Grant rose to the rank of Senior Sergeant Major in the Indian Army and saw service in the Second Afghan War. Further biographical details are given in his memoirs in the collection (MS 3272/1). |
| Custodial History | Mrs. R. A. Crofton inherited the collection from her husband, who was James Grant's grandson. |
| Description | This small collection comprises one volume of memoirs and two photograph albums, compiled by James Grant, and covering the period 1837 - 1883. The memoirs contain a record of James Grant's early life in Scotland and of his career in the Indian Army, describing various aspects of army life, including the cantonments, marches, road and bridge-building in the North West Frontier and into Afghanistan, tribal skirmishes, and the campaigns of the Second Afghan War. The photograph albums date from the period c 1870 - c 1878 and illustrate his career. They show military and engineering scenes such as camps, temples, forts and bridges, and groups of Indian Army officers and troops, including portraits of the Sikh Non Commissioned Officers serving in the Indian Army. There are photographs of Delhi preparing for the 1877 Durbar, and scenes from the Khyber Pass, Jalalabad and other places in which Grant was active during the Second Afghan War. |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the University Archivist and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |