David Lawson Grant (1890 - 1947)

On 19 of February 1890 at Rosehall Cottage in the Hawkshill district of Dundee David Lawson Grant was born to Andrew Grant – a butcher – and Sophia MacPherson. Andrew and Sophia had married in Dundee on 30 December 1873 and David was the last of their eight children. In the 1891 census Andrew and Sophia were living at the Victoria Hotel, Blairgowrie with their children – Annie (14), Tom (13), Agnes (11), Dora (8), Andrew (6) and David (1); Andrew's mother – Ann Steel (74) - was also there and is a listed as an Annultant (the Receiver of an Annuity) she had been widowed when Thomas Grant died in 1889 aged 72. On census night Colin was not living at home. On census night he was a boarder with a family called Lawson: He was 15 or 16 and was a butcher. Perhaps there is a connection between the family he was boarding with and David's middle name?

On August 28 1892,at the Victoria Hotel Sophia died from septicaemia: she was 39. In the following year, 20 June 1893, also at the Victoria Ann Steel Grant died of heart disease aged 76. In 1899 on February 23 Andrew Grant died, aged 46, at Seedlands (house name still on the Forfar Road), Coupar Angus. On his death certificate the cause of death appears to read Haemoph... and might have been Haemophilus. Curiously in the settlement of his will it states that he has only 4 children, Annie, Sophia, Andrew and David. The appraisal of his estate lists the fixtures and fittings of 2 shops at High Street and Bank Street, Lochee. The estate is to be shared equally amongst the 4 children when the youngest reaches the age of 21 (which appears to be when David reaches 21 in 1911) although he does state that his sons can get access to their shares before this date if it is to be used to go into business. His daughters are to be given £50 if they marry.

In 1900 Annie Grant (David's eldest sister) marries James Doig Kidd – a butcher – and her address is listed as 4 Bank Street Dundee; the same street as one of Andrew's butcher's shops. David had now been without parents for over a year and had perhaps been staying with his sister Annie but, now that she was married, he might have had to move out. That might be the reason why on June 15 1900 David Lawson Grant is “found wandering without proper guardianship” and is admitted to the Baldovan Industrial School for Boys in Strathmartine. He was 10 years old.

The Baldovan Institution was founded in 1852, mainly through the benevolence of Sir John and Lady Jane Ogilvy and from voluntary contributions and fees. It was established on the north bank of the Dighty as an orphanage, hospital and place of education and training for ‘imbecile’ children, accommodating 30 children. As such it was the first hospital of its kind in Scotland and the second in Britain. The Orphanage opened on 30th November 1854 and the Asylum opened on January 6th1855.

In 1856 its name was changed to Baldovan Asylum and it expanded its operations after it received its licence under the Lunacy Act of 1858, which legalised its function as a home for children. It was found that contact with 'imbeciles' had a detrimental effect upon the orphans and so in 1867 the Orphanage moved to other premises and the Baldovan Asylum concentrated its efforts on the care and education of mentally handicapped children. By 1879 the number of children accommodated at the Asylum had increased to 70 and the site where the Administrative block now stands was acquired. By 1904 the Main Building wards were built and occupied by 160 children.

In the1901 census David Lawson Grant, 11, is still in Baldovan Industrial School. In light of his later working as a butcher one can suppose that, between 1901 and 1911 he may have been working as a butcher. However, sometime after the 1901 census he's moved to Kenilworth, and is working as a despatch clerk in a motor works. 1911 in the census of this year David appears in England, Kenilworth Warwickshire, in the household of his uncle William S Wilson and his wife Rosa M Wilson. David is listed as nephew, 21, single, a despatch clerk in a motor works, born Dundee. Also in the house that night were Rosa Grant, niece, 14, born Dundee; Robert Wilson, 12, son; and Annie Grant, niece, 11, also born in Dundee. David's listed occupation points to his working there rather than just visiting. However I have yet to establish that William Scott Wilson was his uncle, I've yet to find the connection. William Scott Wilson, born Dundee 1866, married Rose Matilda Pearce in Dundee, St Peter in 1888 appears to be the couple but that's all I have discovered.

In 1912 on April 7 David Lawson Grant arrives at Ellis Island on board the Anchor Line ship the SS California. Twenty two years of age, a butcher (not a despatch clerk as in the 1911 census), 5' 4” in height, fresh complexion, fair hair and blue eyes. Against his entry in the Passenger manifest 2 sisters are listed, Mrs Kidd in Brechin (his eldest sister Annie) and Mrs O'Leary (Sophia) in Chicago. Bear in mind that, having reached his majority, David could have come into his inheritance and just be having a holiday. (The passenger records can be viewed at: http://www.ellisisland.org/ ) Note that David's second child is given the middle name of O'Leary, presumably after Sophia's husband.

Later on, in the Army papers, Jeannie states that he returned home in May 1912 and also that they were married in that year. This has to be a mistake on her part, they were married in 1913 and, surely he wouldn't have landed in the US in April and returned in May? Whatever the circumstances he didn't stay long as by the following year he was back in Scotland. 1913 July 2 David Grant, master butcher, aged 23 of Tofthill marries Jeannie Traynor, laundry maid aged 22 of Kirk Street Lochee. 1914 March 29th David Lawson Grant(2) is born. He went on to own a chip shop in Edinburgh, married but had no children. 1915 January 25 David Lawson Grant joins the territorial Army Lowland (City of Edinburgh) Royal Garrison Artillery for a term of 4 years. 1915 October 31 George O'Leary Grant born. 1916 It was probably during this year that he was posted to Winchester, Hampshire, England and it was here that he met up with Caroline Elizabeth Hall, my grandmother. At that time she was married to James Fowler, they'd married in 1915 and he'd gone off to the front. As so many did he came back a different man, who knows what the situation was. Anyway she obviously met Grant and they began to cohabit because: 1917 February 28 Bessie Lawson Grant (my mother) was born in Hampshire. 1918 March 23 or thereabouts the Army took steps to sort him out and he was posted. However: 1918 June David Lawson Grant(3) born in Hampshire. This was my mother's brother. As I remember the story, Caroline was a single mother with 2 children. With one child she might be able to manage but with two? So she decided to give David up for adoption. All adoptions before 1921(?) were private arrangements and no official records were kept. So it's impossible to trace which family the young David was adopted by. I did hear that the family owned a dairy in Winchester but.......

So... David is now in a mess. He's due to finish his 4 years with the Army at the end of May and he has a wife and 2 children in Dundee and 2 children by another woman in Winchester: what was he to do? What he chose to try and do was escape and to do that he attempted to make use of a procedure that the British Army had put in place – Army Form Z7. This was the form to be used to claim passage on a ship to the country that the applicant had come from to join up. In DLG's case he decided to try and manipulate his return from his 1912 US trip so that it appeared that he had actually returned after living in the US for some time. All he had to do, he thought, was adjust the date of his return. 1919 on March 12th 1919 he submitted his first Z7 for repatriation to the US. “My work is there. I came to Scotland for the winter and whilst in Scotland joined the Army” he wrote. He went on to state that he had arrived in Glasgow on September 11th 1914 aboard the SS California. This claim was apparently rejected “owing to the date of arrival” - whatever the reason it was patently a lie as he'd certainly been in Scotland when he married Jeannie in July 1913. 1919 April 10 Undeterred he submitted another claim and this time it was provisionally approved. However Jeannie had somehow got wind of what he was trying to do and contacted the War Pensions office in Dundee and told them, in no uncertain terms, that he had been married to her for 6 years and that during that period they did not reside in America. She further suggested that he was trying to desert her. He was then interviewed by the G.O.C. And stated that his “wife drank and was trying to prevent him from returning to America”. He further stated that he “will provide evidence from the USA”. Pending receipt of this the G.O.C. directed the claim to be in abeyance. DLG did manage to get his sister Annie to support his claim, she wrote “My brother D L Grant made his home with my sister in Chicago. She expects him back soon” In tandem with this were letters to and from Anchor (the Cunard Line) attempting to substantiate his claim, the surviving documentation is incomplete but the upshot was that he was found guilty of making a false claim and his application was rejected. Perhaps that had something to do with what had actually happened to the SS California. In his claim he stated that he'd arrived in Glasgow aboard the SS California. on or about, September 1914. However it transpired that on 28 June 1914 the California had run aground on Tory Island off the north-west coast of Ireland in dense fog with over 1,000 passengers on board. The ships bows caved in upon impact and though she took on water through 2 holes in her hold she remained afloat. The ship was towed back to Glasgow on 20 August 1914 and less than 2 months later was repaired and refloated. She only resumed Glasgow-Liverpool-New York sailings for Cunard – Anchor on 13 October 1915. 1919 on the seventh of May there was a further letter from War Pensions, Dundee stating that Jeannie had called with a letter from a woman (my grandmother) in Winchester. The woman states that she had been living with Grant for the past 3 years, has two illegitimate children by him, and a potential third. In neither of his Z7 applications had he claimed for any wife or family. Woman in Winchester has informed police and they are taking up the matter. 1919 April 29 David Lawson Grant is demobbed and sent off under 45A, presumably he went back to Jeannie. It was around here that he disappeared and despite the Army trying to locate him: 1919 August 25 the Army finally gave up trying to trace David Lawson Grant and, effectively, closed the book on the affair. It was also during 1919 that James Fowler divorced Caroline citing David Lawson Grant as the co-respondent. 1920 – 1928 Perhaps it was around now that he became a butcher, it was obviously something that he had done previously, see his Army Attestation forms etc. The photo of him outside the butcher's shop was probably taken around this time. Incidentally there is still a butchers in Dundee named Grants …. I wonder..... 1929 March 29, aged 37, Jeannie (Jane Mary Stitt Traynor) dies in Edinburgh, of cancer. At this time David Lawson Grant was a lodging house keeper at 79 Grassmarket Edinburgh. 1947 August 26 David Lawson Grant dies, of stomach cancer. He died at the Deaconess Hospital in Edinburgh and his usual residence was listed as 13 Millerfield Place, Edinburgh. He was still manager of a men's hostel and his spouse is named as Rosa Alice Craik Barnford. Not sure if they were actually married, I've found no record of a marriage between the two. I wonder if this Rosa might be the same Rosa that appeared in the 1911 census where David was staying with William Wilson?