M. E. Grant Duff

Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff (21 February 1829 – 12 January 1906), known as M. E. Grant Duff before 1887 and as Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff thereafter, was a Scottish politician, administrator and author. He served as the under-secretary of state for India from 1868 to 1874, under-secretary of state for the colonies from 1880 to 1881 and the governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886.

The son of the distinguished British historian James Grant Duff, he was educated at Grange School and Balliol College, Oxford, before being called to the English bar. He practised and taught law for a short time before starting a political life and entering the House of Commons as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Elgin Burghs.

His abilities won him government positions and he was Under-Secretary of State for India, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and Governor of Madras. His performance in politics and administration received mixed reviews during the 1880s: "a politician of brilliant promise and scant performance, of wide information which he seemed to turn to much account, of abilities which would have made the fortunes of half a dozen men and of which he made little enough."

On his return from Madras, he retired from politics and served in various art and scientific societies, before his death in 1906.

Early life and education Duff was born in Eden, Banff, Banffshire on 21 February 1829, the elder son of James Grant Duff, an East India Company army officer who administered the princely state of Satara Bombay Presidency, and his wife Jane Catherine, daughter of Sir Whitelaw Ainslie. He was named after Mountstuart Elphinstone, a governor of Bombay. and practised as a junior under William (later Mr Justice) Field. Duff held the office until the government was defeated in 1874. He worked well with the secretary of state Argyll; their relationship was described by Duthie as 'rather deliberately obedient to Argyll; and always in agreement with him on policy'.

When Gladstone came back to power in 1880, Grant Duff was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and sworn of the Privy Council.

Governor of Madras He was captivated by the beach at Madras on an earlier visit to the city. As a result, when he became governor in 1881 he immediately commenced the construction of a promenade along the beach. The iris was then named after him, Iris grant-duffii.

He was a strong supporter of Dietrich Brandis in his reorganization of the Madras Forest Department and expansion of systematic forest conservancy in India.

His tenure was filled with a number of controversies and allegations of partisan behaviour and injustice. He was sharply criticised for the way he handled the Chingleput Ryots' Case and the arrests and trials following the Salem riots of 1882. The Hindu accused him of indulging in vindictive and vengeful behaviour. In one of the articles, he was criticised thus: "Oh! Lucifer! How art thou fallen? Oh! Mr Grant-Duff, how you stand like an extinct volcano in the midst of the ruins of your abortive reputation as an administrator! Erudite you may be, but a statesman you are not." He was also accused of deliberately nurturing a movement against Brahmins.

However, Louis Mallet, the then Under-Secretary of State for India, was all praise for him. On receipt of his last minute as governor, Mallett said, "I doubt whether any governor has left behind so able and so complete a record". This is considered to be one of the oldest Indian political organisations in the Madras Presidency, notwithstanding the Madras Native Association, which was a failure. Members of the Madras Mahajana Sabha played a pivotal role in corresponding with Indian associations in other provinces and forming the Indian National Congress in 1885. The Indian National Congress held its first session at Bombay in December 1885, attended by 72 delegates including 22 from the Madras Presidency. Grant Duff was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1881 and a Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India in March 1887. In July 1886, Gladstone tried to get a peerage for him but failed.

On an official visit to Rome a few years after the conclusion of his tenure, Grant Duff records that the Speaker of the Italian Parliament Biancheri inquired about the size of the province that Grant Duff had governed. On receiving the reply that the province was 'larger than Italy, including all the Italian islands', Biancheri astonishedly asked "What an empire is that, in which such a country is only a province?". Lieutenant-Colonel Adrian Grant-Duff, CB (1869–1914), colonel of the Black Watch, was killed at the First Battle of the Aisne in September 1914. In October 1906 Adrian married Ursula, daughter of John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury. One of his three daughters was Shiela Grant Duff while his son, Neill, was killed at Houdetot near St Valery-en-Caux France in 1940 whilst serving with the Black Watch. Clara Annabel Caroline Grant Duff (1870–1944), who married in 1895 the financier Frederick Huth Jackson. (1882–1957).

He died in his home in Chelsea, London in January 1906, aged 76, and was buried in Elgin Cathedral, Scotland.

Ancestry

Works (Scan) (Scan) (Scan) (Scan) Notes from a diary. London: John Murray. - (1851-1872):1 2 - (1873-1881):1 2 - (1881-1886):1 2 - (1886-1888):1 2 - (1889-1891):1 2 - (1892-1895):1 2 - (1896-1901):1 2 (Scan) volume 1 volume 2