File:Major J.J.F. Grant, D- 1884.jpg

English: Major John Joseph Forsyth Grant, 46th Regiment. B: 1840, D: 1884, Aged 44.

The following article was taken from the Leckhampton Local History Society, Issue 87, April 2019, and was written by Mary Oliver.

The Forsyth Grants lived in Ecclesgrieg (now known as St. Cyrus) in the 1840s but John Joseph was born in Canada, as were his parents and two older siblings. The two younger ones were born at Ecclesgrieg. The stone at the base of John Joseph’s monument may have come from the family estate in Scotland but I cannot find the significance of the logs. The family graves in St. Cyrus are more traditional in design, all low rectangles of stone with a horizontal cross carved on the raised top. Ecclesgrieg Castle was built in the early 1800s, replacing an older house, it is still there, classified as a building at risk. Both of John Joseph’s parents are buried at Ecclesgrieg.

John Joseph was an officer in the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry. He served in Malta, North America, Bermuda and Gibraltar, amongst other places. In 1882 he became ill with dysentery. He was nursed until he was well enough to return to Britain to recuperate. He returned to his regiment several months later but again, in 1883, became ill with dysentery and decided he would have to leave the army. Back in England he stayed with his sister Eweretta Alice Forsyth Grant in Park Place, Cheltenham where he sadly died in 1884, and was buried in Leckhampton churchyard.

In 1876 he had married and had two sons, one born in Bermuda in 1878 and the other in Cornwall in 1880. In 1882 he was granted a divorce from his wife for infidelity with her parents’ coachman. He was awarded custody of his sons. Eweretta cared for them after their father’s death, at first in Park Place and later in St. Stephen’s Road. Eweretta died in 1924 and is also buried somewhere in Leckhampton churchyard. It would be interesting to find her grave and see if it relates in any way to John Joseph’s. The burial records give no indication of where it is - please let me know if you have any information.