The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Businessman and arts patron Angus Grossart
Sir Angus Grossart, who has died, aged 85, was one of the most eminent Scottish business figures of his generation.
He built and ran the merchant bank Noble Grossart for five decades, served as vice-chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland and was a committed patron of the arts.
While his business life required his base to be in Edinburgh, with visits to London and overseas, Sir Angus tended to spend weekends at his other home, Pitcullo Castle, near Leuchars.
He bought the ruined 16th-Century tower house in 1977 and spent decades restoring the building and landscaping its gardens.
In his youth Sir Angus was twice captain of Scotland’s under-22 golf team.
He toured the USA as a member of a British junior team, was runner-up in the British Youth Golf Championship and secured success in a number of open competitions.
Sir Angus was a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, the New Club and the Speculative Society.
Christopher Thomson, chairman of publisher DC Thomson and Co. Ltd, said: “Sir Angus was a man who could not be pigeonholed, defined or captured.
“He was always ahead of any such attempts.
“He was as much at home with the titans of industry as with artists and artisans.
“He never lost the common touch and could be seen occasionally in St Andrews at the fish and chip shops and was as happy with a fine bowl of soup as a fancy meal.
“There was, however, very little in Scotland that was not affected by him in some way for the better.”
Born Angus McFarlane McLeod Grossart in Lanarkshire in April 1937, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and then Glasgow University.
He graduated MA in arts and LLB in law. He was a pupil of Lord Mackay of Clashfern, the future Lord Advocate, and after qualifying first as a chartered account, he was called to the Scottish bar in 1963.
In 1969 he jointly formed the merchant bank Noble Grossart Limited with some of the larger financial institutions and commercial interests in Scotland.
Sir Angus chaired or served on nearly 20 listed public company boards in the UK, USA and Canada, involving banking, investment and investment management, property, oil, construction, insurance and newspapers and media.
From 1986 he was a trustee and, until 1997, chairman of the National Galleries of Scotland, and was chairman of the National Museums of Scotland until 2012.
He was a founding trustee, along with the Duke of Rothesay, of the Dumfries House Trust, and chaired the Burrell Museum Renaissance and the Edinburgh International Cultural Summit.
Sir Angus had a major interest in the built heritage and the arts and had substantial collections of Scottish paintings, decorative arts and traditional crafts.
In 2021, he initiated and led the national service of celebration for the life of Sir Walter Scott.
The event, which marked the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth, was held in St Giles Cathedral and was preceded by a procession led by the Lord Lyon King of Arms and followed by a march to the Scott Monument to lay tributes.
He was awarded honorary degrees of LLD from Glasgow in 1985, DBA from Strathclyde in 1998, D.Litt from St Andrews in 2004 and LLD from Aberdeen in 2006.
Sir Angus, knighted in 1997, was an honorary fellow of the Institute of Bankers in Scotland and was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
He was presented with a Loving Cup by the City of Glasgow to mark the reopening of the Burrell Collection.
He is survived by his wife Lady Gay Grossart and by his daughter Flure.