Grant, Robert Sir (1779-1838), Governor of Bombay, Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge

• Sir Robert Grant, MP

Born in 1779 in Bengal. Son of Charles Grant.

Admitted pensioner at Magdalene, aged 15 in 1795.

Craven Scholar, 1799; B.A. (3rd Wrangler) 1801; 2nd Chancellor's Medal, 1801; M.A. 1804.
Made a Fellow in 1802.
Called to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn, 30 January 1807.
King's Serjeant in the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster and one of the Commissioners of Bankrupts.
M.P. for Elgin Burghs, 1818; for Inverness Burghs, 1826; for Norwich, 1830 and 1831; for Finsbury, 1832.
Commissioner of Board of Control, 1830. P.C., 1831. In the House of Commons he persistently championed the movement for repealing the civil disabilities of Jews. Judge Advocate-General, 1832.
Served as Governor of Bombay, 1835-1838, in which capacity he brought Aden into the British Empire (1838: the first acquisition of Queen Victoria’s reign).
Knighted, 1834. K.C.H., 1834.

In 1829 he married Margaret, daughter of Sir David Davidson, of Cantray, Nairnshire, and had issue.
Well known as a hymn-writer. A book of sacred poems by him was published by his brother Charles, Lord Glenelg in 1839. ‘O worship the King’ has been adopted as ‘the College hymn’.
His Indian servants believed he was reborn as a cat.

Died 9 July 1838, at Dapoorie, India. Buried at Poona.

A volume of his sacred poems was published by his brother Charles (Lord Glenelg) in 1839:

Arms in Hall glass, W2. Memorial brass in Chapel.

Venn, John, and Venn, John Archibald, Alumni Cantabrigienses; a biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900