Sir Angus Grossart
Born 6 April 1937. Died 13 May 2022
SIR ANGUS Grossart, CBE, Chairman of Noble Grossart has died aged 85.
A long time resident of the New Town, we photographed him most recently at the Sir Walter Scott Pageant in autumn 2021.
The two knights of the realm shared a similar career path both becoming Scottish advocates, and both loving the capital. Others have recounted his successful route to becoming the man who had his own bank, but we turned to people who knew him well to get a sense of who Angus Grossart was.
Sir Tom Farmer said that he first met Sir Angus in the airport car park in 1968.
He recounted: “It was midnight. I had just come off the last flight from London, and heard someone trying to start a car, but the battery was flat. I went over to see if I could help, and offered him a lift into town. I asked for his car keys and said I would get his car fixed and delivered to him the next day. He was impressed that I sold him a battery for his car - even that late at night.
“We developed a friendship and he became someone who I could speak to and ask for advice. He had a tremendous impact on Scotland in many ways including in the fields of arts and culture. He has made his mark here and will be impossible to follow. He has left a great legacy and many people will not know that some things only happened because of Angus. The best tribute to him will be for others to carry on doing good things.”
Author Alexander McCall Smith remembered him fondly and said: “Angus was a towering presence in Edinburgh. He made a major contribution to the arts and always did that in a modest and unassuming way.
“I shall remember him for his kindly manner, for the twinkle in his eye, and for the quiet way in which he did the things he did. Sometimes you had to listen very hard to catch his words, but it was always worthwhile. He brought light and fun to Edinburgh and all Scotland. He leaves behind him a great and inspiring legacy.”
The former Rt Hon Lord Provost, Frank Ross said: “Sir Angus was an unsung hero of Edinburgh and Scottish society. In addition to his business interests his support for the cultural and civic elements of the capital was immense.
“A fitting tribute for his work was the Sir Walter Scott 250th anniversary event which Sir Angus was the driving force behind. Without doubt the most significant civic procession Edinburgh has seen for several generations.”
Rory Knight Bruce, an author and journalist, who considered Sir Angus a “kind and good friend”, portrayed Dandie Dinmont in the pageant .
Knight Bruce said: “Having known Sir Angus and his wife Gay for more than forty years of good friendship, it was the greatest privilege to be invited to take part in Angus’s wonderful commemorative service at St Giles Cathedral to honour Sir Walter Scott last October.
“Between us we hatched that I should come dressed as Scott’s Dandie Dinmont (the character of the Border farmer in ‘Guy Mannering’ who kept Dandie Dinmont terriers). We managed to get 47 Dandies and their owners into the cathedral, and to process them afterwards down The Mound to The Scott Monument with not a cocked leg or snarl in sight. The poet Philip Larkin once wrote that there are in any man’s life only twelve good days - this was truly one of mine.
“The day before, by chance, I met Angus at the New Club and he told me that he had been junior counsel in the celebrated Argyll v Argyll divorce case. Newspaper photographs at the time show him walking into court. “I wonder who will play me in the forthcoming television drama of the case,” he asked. Sadly he did not make the cut.
“We are all Jock Tamson’s bairns,” he was fond of saying. That was his genius: To make you feel equal to him as a man nothing short of a genius himself. Our weakness was to believe him.”