Bot at 15:50, 23 October 2022

2022-10-23T15:50:16Z

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name=John Duncan Grant
|birth_date=28 December 1877
|death_date= {{Death date and age|df=yes|1967|02|20|1877|12|28}}
|birth_place= [[Roorkee]], [[British India]]
|death_place=[[Royal Tunbridge Wells]], [[Kent]]
|placeofburial=
|image=
|image_size=
|caption=
|nickname=
|allegiance= {{flag|United Kingdom}}
|serviceyears= 1898–1929
|rank=[[Colonel]]
|branch=[[British Indian Army]]
|commands=
|unit=[[8th Gurkha Rifles]] [[Madras Staff Corps]] [[Indian Staff Corps]]
|battles=[[British expedition to Tibet]] [[World War I]] [[Third Anglo-Afghan War]] [[Waziristan campaign (1919–1920)|Waziristan campaign]]
|awards= [[Victoria Cross]] [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]] [[Distinguished Service Order]] [[Mentioned in Despatches]]
|laterwork=
}}
[[Colonel]] '''John Duncan Grant''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|VC|CB|DSO}} (28 December 1877 – 20 February 1967) was a [[British Indian Army]] officer who was awarded the [[Victoria Cross]], the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to [[United Kingdom|British]] and [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] forces.

==Victoria Cross==
Born at [[Roorkee]], northern [[India]], and educated in [[England]] at [[Cheltenham College]], Grant attended the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]] and after [[passing out]] was appointed as a [[Second Lieutenant#United Kingdom and Commonwealth|Second Lieutenant]] to the "Unattached List ... with a view to [his] appointment to the [[Indian Staff Corps]]."<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=26931|page=377|date=21 January 1898}}</ref> He was promoted to [[Lieutenant]] in 1900.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27211|page=4436|date=17 July 1900}}</ref> He joined the [[8th Gurkha Rifles]] which was part of the [[British expedition to Tibet]] in 1903–04. On 6 July 1904 his actions at the storming of the [[Gyantse Dzong]] (fortress) led to the award of the Victoria Cross:<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27758|page=574|date=24 January 1905}}</ref>
[[File:Gyantse Fortress.jpg|230px|right|thumb|Gyantse Dzong]]

{{Quote|text=On the occasion of the storming of the Gyantse Jong on 6th July, 1904, the storming Company, headed by Lieutenant Grant, on emerging from the cover of the village, had to advance up a bare, almost precipitous, rock-face, with little or no cover available, and under a heavy fire from the curtain, flanking towers on both sides of the curtain, and other buildings higher up the Jong. Showers of rocks and stones were at the time being hurled down the hillside by the enemy from above. One man could only go up at a time, crawling on hands and knees, to the breach in the curtain.

Lieutenant Grant, followed by [[Havildar]] Karbir Pun, 8th Gurkha Rifles, at once attempted to scale it, but on reaching near the top he was wounded, and hurled back, as was also the Havildar, who fell down the rock some 30 feet.

Regardless of their injuries they again attempted to scale the breach, and, covered by the fire of the men below, were successful in their object, the Havildar shooting one of the enemy on gaining the top. The successful issue of the assault was very greatly due to the splendid example shown by Lieutenant Grant and Havildar Karbir Pun.
The latter has been recommended for the [[Indian Order of Merit]].|sign=''London Gazette'', 24 January 1905}}

==Later service==
Grant was promoted to [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] in 1907<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28005|page=1928|date=19 March 1907}}</ref> and to [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]] in 1916.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29568|page=4464|date=5 May 1916}}</ref> During [[World War I]] he served in the [[Persian Gulf Residency|Persian Gulf]] in 1915–16, [[Western Front (World War I)|France and Belgium]] in 1917 and [[Mesopotamian campaign|Mesopotamia]] in 1918. After the war he served in [[Third Anglo-Afghan War|Afghanistan]] in 1919, and then as [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant colonel]] in command of the [[13th Rajputs]] in the [[Waziristan campaign (1919–1920)]]. He was awarded the [[Distinguished Service Order]] "for distinguished service rendered in the Field with the Waziristan Force, 1920–1921."<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32778|page=8955|date=19 December 1922}}</ref> He was [[Assistant Adjutant General]] at the headquarters of the [[Army of India]] 1925–28, and Deputy Director of the [[Auxiliary Force (India)|Auxiliary]] and [[Indian Territorial Force|Territorial]] Force in India 1928–29. He retired in 1929 with the rank of [[Colonel (United Kingdom)|colonel]] and was appointed a [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]] in the [[King's Birthday Honours]] of that year.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33501|supp=y |page=3668|date=31 May 1929}}</ref> He was ceremonial Colonel of the [[10th Gurkha Rifles]] 1934–47.

==Personal life==
Grant married Kathleen Freyer (born 1883), the daughter of Sir Peter Freyer, an Irish doctor who served in the [[Indian Medical Service]]. They had two children.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sir Peter Freyer Papers, IE JHL/P057 |url=http://www.iar.ie/Archive.shtml?IE%20JHL/P057 |website=Irish Archives Resource |publisher=[[Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht]]}}</ref>

He died in [[Royal Tunbridge Wells|Tunbridge Wells]], aged 89, and was cremated and buried at the [[Kent and Sussex Crematorium and Cemetery]].

==References==
*[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U48559 GRANT, Col John Duncan, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, retrieved 27 October 2012]
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041214222822/http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/stewart/kent.htm Location of grave] ''(Kent)''
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070513150108/http://www.dhs.kyutech.ac.jp/~ruxton/OC_victoria_crosses.html John GRANT of Cheltenham College]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, John Duncan}}
[[Category:1877 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Haridwar]]
[[Category:People educated at Cheltenham College]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the British expedition to Tibet]]
[[Category:Indian Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Afghan War]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Waziristan Campaign]]
[[Category:British recipients of the Victoria Cross]]
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]
[[Category:British colonels]]

John Duncan Grant - Revision history

Bot at 15:50, 23 October 2022