Alexander Grant, M.B.E; M.M.

Alexander Grant was born at Milton Cottages, Tomnavoulin 1893.
He attended the local village school before going to the Secondary School at Glenlivet where
he was a star pupil.

At 15, he found work at the Post Office in Aberlour; he found lodgings in the town.
Each week-end he cycled the sixteen miles home where he attended the Literary Society
held by the Rev. R.H. Calder. While in Aberlour, Alex also attended Continuation Classes
in the evenings and he received Certificates for Commercial and Industrial Courses 1911-1912.

He joined the Gordon Highlanders during the First Wold War and received the Military Medal
for Bravery at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

After his War Services, Alex returned to Aberlour and the Post Office but only stayed for
a few months before he enlisted with the Royal Engineers. He served in India for most of
his 15 years engagement, and was known as the first white man to go through the Kyber
Pass when he carried the wages to the men of the loyal Ghurka Regiment.

Back home in Scotland, Alex was then employed in the Territorial Army Offices in Aberdeen
before being promoted as Chief Pay Clerk to Edinburgh Castle.

After 51 years of unbroken services to the Crown, Alexander Grant of Tomnavoulin was made
a Member of the British Empire, M.B.E. in 1963.

When Alexander Grant died in 1975, his younger brother, James Gordon Grant, held on to some
of Alex’s papers.

Among these papers he found the Hand Written Manuscripts and gave them to me in the hope
that I might someday get them published. Unfortunately, I was not in a position to do this
until it was too late for James to see the result of his brother’s work in print.

The Poems show how life went on it Glenlivet over one hundred years ago and gives a little
bit of local history.

By Henrietta Milne Sunday, 21 September 2008