Colonial Despatches

Captain John Marshall Grant, the third son of General Duncan Grant of the Royal Artillery, was born at sea and was raised in Gibraltar. Grant joined the army in January 1842, serving in the West Indies and Demerara from 1844 to 1851. He was promoted lieutenant in 1845, second captain in 1853, and captain in 1855; he spent 1852-55 in Jamaica.1

Returning to England in 1855, Grant worked on the improvement of barracks with the Commission of Barracks. In 1858, Grant was placed in charge of the second group of Royal Engineers to come to British Columbia; he remained in the colony for five years, supervising surveys, construction, and roadbuilding. Grant returned to Shorncliffe, England, in 1863; he became a lieutenant-colonel in 1865 and a colonel in 1873, serving on the staff at army headquarters as assistant quartermaster-general from 1866 to 1870.2

He was commander of the Royal Engineers at Chatham from 1870 to 1873 and commander at Dover from 1873 to 1875. He served as deputy adjutant general of the Corps at Horse Guards until 1881; he then went to Woolwich as commander of the Royal Engineers, retiring on 21 April 1882. Grant died at Bournemouth on 1 April 1902.3

• 1. London Times, 21 April 1902, p. 9; Colonel J. M. Grant, Royal Engineer, Royal Engineers Journal 32, no. 378 (1 May 1902): 86-87. BCDES 37.1.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Ibid.