became principal of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, a presbyterian foundation. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Glasgow University in the same year. Queen's University was at the time in financial difficulties, and he undertook two strenuous campaigns in 1878 and 1887 to obtain increased endowment from private sources. The immediate financial situation saved. Grant concentrated his energies upon securing adequate recognition and aid from the provincial legislature; but he was faced by a prejudice against state-aided denominational colleges, which was encouraged by the claim of the University of Toronto to be the only properly constituted provincial university. In 1887 Queen's University rejected federation with Toronto. But Grant's political influence steadily grew, and he secured for his university in 1893 a state-endowed school of mines, which subsequently became the faculty of practical science in the university. In 1898 Grant sought to sever the tie between the presbyterian church and the arts faculty of Queen's. In 1900 he forced his views upon the church assembly, but he died two years later, and the assembly of 1903 reversed his policy, which was not enforced till June 1911. Grant's preponderating influence in education led to an invitation (which was refused) from Sir Oliver Mowat [q. v. Suppl. II] in 1883 to resign his principalship and accept the portfolio of education in his cabinet. Grant held that the education administration in the province should be wholly 'Withdrawn from politics.
Grant acquired an intimate knowledge of the country, having twice traversed the continent. In 1872 he accompanied Mr. (afterwards Sir) Sandford Fleming on his preliminary survey of a route for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1883, again with Mr. Fleming, he examined a route through the mountains. The first journey Grant recorded in 'Ocean to Ocean' (1873), and the impressions of both journeys are merged in four articles contributed to 'Scribner's Magazine' in 1880, and in 'Picturesque Canada,' a publication which he edited in 1884. To the press and to periodicals Grant frequently communicated his views on public questions. His political comments in the 'Queen's University Quarterly' were widely read. He powerfully supported the new imperialism, and urged on Canada her imperial responsibilities. He became president of the Imperial Federation League, Ontario, in 1889. To religious literature Grant contributed one book of importance, 'Religions of the World' (Edinburgh 1894; 2nd edit., revised and enlarged, 1895). This has been translated into many European languages and into Japanese.
Grant showed his courage and independence at the close of his life in his trenchant criticism of the temperance party, which aimed at the total prohibition of the liquor traffic. To restore his health, which was impaired by his endowment campaign of 1887, Grant made a tour of the world in 1888. In 1889 he was elected moderator of the general assembly of the presbyterian church in Canada, and became LL.D. of Dalhousie University in 1892. In 1891 he was elected president of the Royal Society of Canada. He was president of the St. Andrew's Society, Kingston, from 1894 to 1896. In 1901 he was created C.M.G. He died at Kingston on 10 May 1902. He was buried in Cataraqui cemetery in the same town.
On 7 May 1867 Grant married Jessie, eldest daughter of William Lawson of Halifax, Nova Scotia. His only surviving child, William Lawson Grant, is professor of history in Queen's University, Kingston. A portrait of Grant by Robert Harris (1889) is in the Convocation Hall of Queen's University, Kingston; a bust by Hamilton McCarthy (1891) is in the library and senate room there.
[Life by W. L. Grant and Frederick Hamilton, Toronto, 1904, and Edinburgh and London 1905.]
GRANT, SIR ROBERT (1837–1904), lieutenant-general, royal engineers, born at Malabar Hill, Bombay, on 10 Aug. 1837, was younger son of Sir Robert Grant [q.v.] governor of Bombay, and was nephew of Lord Glenelg [q. v.]. His mother was Margaret (d. 1885), only daughter of Sir David Davidson of Cantray, Nairnshire, N.B., who married as her second husband Lord Josceline William Percy, M.P., second son of George fifth duke of Northumberland.
Robert was educated at Harrow with his elder brother Charles [see below]. When he was seventeen he passed first in a public competitive examination for vacancies in the royal artillery and the royal engineers caused by the Crimean war, and was gazetted second lieutenant in the royal engineers on 23 Oct. 1854, becoming first lieutenant on 13 Dec. of the same year. After six months' training at Chatham Grant was sent to Scotland. In February
