Biography:
Angus Ivor Grant was born 21 March 1920, the younger son of Colonel John Peter Grant CB, MC, TD, DL (A 1899-1904), of Rothiemurchus, Aviemore, Inverness-shire. His mother was Gertrude Margaret Grant, daughter of the Reverend Truell. His older brother, John Peter Grant , had come to Winchester in 1928.
Angus came to Winchester College from Twyford School in September 1933. He was in I House, Turner's. He fenced for the School and was a keen musician. On leaving Winchester in the summer of 1938, he spent a year studying languages in France and Switzerland before entering the offices of Messrs. Alfred Holt & Co., a shipping line, in July 1939.
In March 1939, Angus joined the Lovat Scouts, which his father had commanded from 1928 to 1932 and in which his brother was serving. The Lovat Scouts were, in the words of one historian of the unit, 'a family regiment in more ways than one. In 1939 there were approximately a hundred, including eleven officers, who were sons of former Scouts. Each squadron teemed with brothers, uncles, nephews and cousins (from Michael Melville, The Story of the Lovat Scouts). Lord Lovat had been allowed to raise two companies of scouts in 1899 for service in South Africa. His main recruits were stalkers, ghillies and shepherds from the northern Highlands of Scotland. They were intended, as the name suggests, to scout out and supply vital intelligence information about the Boers. In World War One the Lovat Scouts had no equals in close observation of the enemy.
In 1939 the Scouts were again mobilized for reconnaissance and close protection duties. Grant was serving as a Second Lieutenant in 1 Troop of ‘A’ Squadron; his brother was the regimental Gas Officer. The Regiment formed part of 9th (Highland) Division until March 1940, when they joined the Mounted Cavalry Division in Nottinghamshire. On 22 April, however, the Lovat Scouts lost the ponies with which they had trained, and began to re-train in a dismounted role. On 22 May they embarked at Glasgow on the Ulster Prince sailing the next day to the Danish-controlled Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, between Norway and Iceland, which the Lovat Scouts were to protect from an expected German invasion. The vessel moored at the port of Thorshavn on the morning of 25 May 1940 in thick fog. The war diary recorded that as the ship came alongside the pier with the pipers playing, crowds of people, including hundreds of children, came down from the town to look on, and remained there all day.
Grant and his regiment spent the best part of two years on garrison duty in the Faroe Islands. ‘A’ Squadron was billetted in Thorshavn at first, but after a month the three squadrons began to rotate through positions at other points, especially the magnificent natural harbour of Skaalefjord. There were continual patrols and cross-country marches, as well as vigorous training in marksmanship and observation. From the spring of 1941, the odd attack by German aircraft – usually on shipping – relieved the monotony.
Grant was taken suddenly ill and died on 18 March 1942, aged twenty-one. 'The death of Lieutenant Angus Grant was a tragic loss to his many friends... Angus was one of the finest and most popular troop leaders in the Regiment', (take from The Story of the Lovat Scouts).
He is buried in grave 138 of the Torshavn Cemetery, Faroe Islands.