GRANT Edward Effingham		Born: 1795-07-25
Father: GRANT Charles		Mother: MAYER Ann
Children: none
Siblings: GRANT Francis, GRANT James Mayer, GRANT Colquhoun George, GRANT Charles (Major)

 

 

Edward Effingham GRANT was born 25 July 1795

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Edward Effingham Grant, was born in Markyate in Hertfordshire in 1795. His ancestry, however, is full of interest. He had served as Lieutenant in the 8th West India Regiment of Foot and then in the Royal African Corps, on half-pay from 1819-1832. The West India Regiments were raised at the end of the eighteenth century and patrolled the Caribbean. The officers tended to be Scots or Irish, the foot soldiers black, and the conditions in which they served less than ideal, yellow fever killing a great many. The Royal Africa Corps was originally made up of criminals and the dishonourably discharged, but by 1819 had been reformed and regularised, seeing action in Sierra Leone and undertaking journeys of exploration into the African interior. Edward Effingham Grant entered the 8th West India as Lieutenant aged 17, so presumably purchased the commission; although he was of Scottish descent and born in England, his family were planters in Antigua and St Vincent, near where the Regiment had its headquarters in Trinidad. The Napoleonic Wars caused the price of sugar to slump, and the plantation owners of the West Indies had begun to fall on hard times. In addition, retired officers on half-pay found the low taxes and mild climate of the Channel Islands to their liking.