John Moreau Grant

Captain John Moreau Grant CBE (1895 – 1986) was a Canadian naval officer. He was the first Commanding Officer of in Esquimalt, British Columbia. The Grant Building at Royal Roads University was named in his honour.

Education John Moreau Grant was born in 1895 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His father was the 11th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia MacCallum Grant. One of his 5 brothers (also 1 sister) was Harold Taylor Wood Grant. He spent two years at school in Heidelberg, Germany. He returned to Halifax in 1909. In January 1911, he joined the Royal Naval College of Canada as one of a class of twenty-one cadets. He entered a strenuous regime conducted by Royal Navy instructors with a heavy emphasis on engineering subjects. He graduated as a midshipman in 1913.

Naval Service He joined the cruiser , and sailed for the West Indies for training. In Mexico and Venezuela, he was part of a force sent to protect British interests against revolutionaries. After courses at Halifax, Nova Scotia he joined another cruiser, , which patrolled off the eastern seaboard of the United States where she stopped shipping to search for German nationals of military age, who were removed. Since he spoke German, he was always a member of the boarding party. He was also involved in the escort of troopships to England. He was appointed to , an I-class destroyer. In 1940, Rear Admiral Percy W. Nelles, then chief of naval staff, led a group of RNCC alumni who met with Angus Lewis Macdonald, then naval minister to discuss opening a college to train naval officers for the postwar navy and for civilian employment in the merchant marine. The college was to be similar to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth and to the former RNCC. In 1940, Angus Lewis Macdonald explained to the House of Commons "it will be a proud day for this country, when our Canadian naval effort will be directed by Canadian men, trained in Canada and operating in ships built in this country."

The National Portrait Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario holds a portrait of Captain John Moreau Grant.