Robert Melville Grindlay

Captain Robert Melville Grindlay FRSA MRAS FZS FRHS FRBS (23 October 1786 – 9 December 1877) was a British soldier, artist, and banker during the 18th and 19th centuries. Born in London, England, he served as an East India Company agent in the Bombay Army, during which time he made a large collection of sketches and drawings of the Indian subcontinent. Upon returning to England he founded the multinational commercial firm Grindlays Bank and various philanthropic initiatives.

Early years and family Grindlay was born on 23 October 1786, one of eight children, to The Reverend Dr John Grindlay DCL LLD (1756–1818) and his wife Elizabeth (d.1843) in the village of St. Mary-le-Bone (now Marylebone) near London, and baptised on 17 November of that same year at St Marylebone Parish Church.

His grandparents James (died 1765) and Christina Grindlay (née Govan), attorneys at law, had emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina from Glasgow, Scotland during the early 18th century, after previous generations had resettled in Lanarkshire from the North Midlands. However, his father returned to the United Kingdom and attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, before taking up various ecclesiastical positions at Oxford Chapel, Marylebone, Bishop's Caundle Church, Dorest, and the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Horne, Surrey, as well various charitable enterprises, including The Philanthropic Society.

Grindlay was educated in London and left school at the age of 17, having secured a position as a cadet in the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). He became a Lieutenant in 1804, and reached the rank of Captain in 1817, before retiring from the military in 1820 at the age of 34.

Grindlay undertook numerous military expeditions while in India, including a diplomatic mission to the court of the Talpur Amirs of Sindh in 1808, which formed part of the prelude to the Amir signature of a treaty of "friendship" with the British in 1809. Having taken an interest in the history and geography of north-western India, he kept a diary of his travels, including the journey from Lukhpat in Cutch, India to Hyderabad in Sindh, Pakistan along the Kori and Narra rivers by way of Sindhri, to meet with Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, the ruling Amir. Several extracts of his journal were used to form part of the best selling memoir of Captain Sir Alexander Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, first published in 1835.

In 1813, Grindlay was given leave to accompany Mary Elizabeth Frederica Mackenzie, then Lady Hood, on a sketching expedition across Peninsula India. They stopped for two months in Poona, where he drew a number of portraits for Mountstuart Elphinstone, British Envoy to the Court of Kabul, for his report on the expedition to Shah Shuja Durrani, Emir of the Durrani Empire, An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India, published in 1815. Grindlay later presented the original aquatints to William Elphinstone, 15th Lord Elphinstone for his biography of Mountstuart following his death in 1859.

Marriage

Grindlay returned to England from India in 1820 and married Maria Susannah Commerell on 20 July 1821 at St Marylebone Parish Church. Maria was the daughter of John William Commerell, of Strood Green near Horsham, a Sheriff of Sussex, whose family originated from Heilbronn in Swabia, Germany, where they were privy councillors and confidents of the Dukes of Württemberg;

The couple established themselves at their principle London home at North Bank, Regent's Park, in the parish of St. Marylebone, and had a son, Robert Melville Grindlay, born on 12 September 1821 and baptised on 24 September 1821 at St Marylebone Parish Church, but who died in infancy later that same year. Expansion saw the business open other offices in the City of London (Cornhill and Bishopsgate) and Westminster (Whitehall and St James's Square).

Under the guidance and direction of Grindlay, these services shifted over time towards financial operations, including banking, insurance, savings and encashment of cheques and drafts, and operational expansion to include the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and elements of Africa and Southeast Asia. During this same period various partner additions, mergers, and acquisitions resulted in the firm undergoing several name changes, being styled Grindlay, Christian & Matthews from 1839, Grindlay & Co from 1843, Grindlay & Co Ltd from 1924 and Grindlays Bank Ltd in 1947, until its merger with the National Bank of India in 1958 when it became National and Grindlays Bank.

By 1842, when Grindlay retired, the firm had become "the most distinguished bankers and agents to the civil and military officials of the business community and the British army in India". He was a central actor in the debating and eventual approval of the Saint Helena Act 1833, being named alongside 27 other stockholders, Members of Parliament, and company directors and chairman, including William Wigram, William Astell, Richard Twining, Sir Charles Mills, Sir Francis Molyneux Ommanney, George Lyall, Sir James Rivett-Carnac and Sir Richard Jenkins, in formal East India House communications.

The Act provided a 20-year extension of the royal charter granted to the East India Company, allowing it to maintain its political and administrative duties in India, but with a number of additional provisions which continued the successive reduction in the company's commercial rights and trading monopolies, seen in the charters of 1793, 1813, 1833 and 1853.

Artist and author

Artist and draftsman

Grindlay kept a detailed personal journal of his time in India, and made numerous sketches and paintings of his travels across the Indian subcontinent. he sketched hundreds of landscapes in Gujarat, the Deccan, and along the coast, with 24 of his works featuring in over 75 publications, and now held across 439 separate library holdings (as of 2021). These include the works of Captain Sir Alexander Burnes, Mountstuart Elphinstone, and Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pottinger, 1st Baronet and his Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde, first published in 1816, along with many others.

The most famous and comprehensive of these collected works is the best selling Scenery, Costumes and Architecture chiefly on the Western Side of India. This series was first published in 6 parts comprising 6 plates each, 36 in total, hand-coloured aquatints with accompanying explanatory descriptions and annotations in 1830 by Smith, Elder & Co, having been started by Rudolph Ackermann in 1826. On completion of the serial issues, the book was also released as a whole by Smith, Elder & Co and issued in one or two volumes, folio copies of which have sold for upwards of £25,000.00. The majority of his published works are engravings of original sketches then overpainted with oils. left Map of India arranged and constructed under the direction of Capt. R.M. Grindlay, by James Wyld, Geographer to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840 Reviews of Scenery, Costumes and Architecture chiefly on the Western Side of India in The Byron Gallery (1833):"If there has been any foundation for the complaint, that the splendid scenery and gorgeous architecture of India have never yet been adequately [portrayed] by the pencil, it will vanish when this work shall be known, which certainly equals, if it does not transcend, any antecedent production of the graphic art. This work bids fair, not merely to establish the fame of Captain Grindlay, but to do honour to the British arts" – Asiatic Journal

"Captain Grindlay gives by this specimen of his labours, ample proof of genius, talent, and industry, exercised to high advantage during his service in the 'farther East;' the work will be appreciated as it deserves and admired for the fidelity as well as the spirit with which the scenes are brought before the eye. It embraces scenes and subjects from the Mahratta country to the banks of the Indus, and is as varied as it is undoubtedly beautiful. This splendid publication will be highly acceptable to all persons interested in Indian subjects and fully deserves the patronage already bestowed upon it"

His artistic skills were also employed in overseeing the creation of various maps of India during the British occupation, most notable of which was the Map of India; constructed with great care and research from all the latest authorities and intended more particularly to facilitate a reference to the civil and military stations. The map was drawn up by The Rt Hon. James Wyld MP FRGS, the Geographer Royal of England, under the direction of Grindlay and relying heavily on his detailed knowledge and experience of the region.

Grindlay also assisted Colonel Monier Williams, Surveyor-General in the Bombay presidency, on his surveying of Gujarat and the Western Presidency.

Between 1834 and 1836, Grindlay published the first edition of his A view of the present state of the question as to steam communication with India, in which he laments the slow government action following an enquiry by a committee of the House of Commons to investigate the "practicability and expediency of establishing, on a permanent footing, a system of steam communication with India" on 14 July 1834. – United Service Journal

"This important subject is here handled in so masterly a manner by Captain Grindlay, the statements are so clear, the illustrations so lucid, and the arguments and inference so strong and legitimate, that we think we shall do most justice to the author by freely quoting from the Pamphlet itself...Captain Grindlay's observations on this point and sincerely trust that the ensuing Session of Parliament will not pass without some effective steps being taken by the legislature for the establishment of such a rapid and certain communication with India as our national interests and the cause of humanity and civilization demand...We feel the country to be deeply indebted to Captain Grindlay for his exertions and we trust the day will come when he will not go unrewarded." The success of this bulletin prompted the partners to transfer printing to London and then dispatch the news sheets to India, thereby improving efficiency, and to expand the remit to include logistical advice for travellers. This more substantial periodical attributed to Grindlay, Considered a "first rank among the journals of India", and "resemble[ing] the Spectator in substance", which sees the protagonist policemen, Sergeant William Clarence Verity, protect the Prince of Wales during a trip to America in the 1860s.

Gallery