Sir Wilfrid Vernon Grigson CSI

Order of the Star of India

The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:# Knight Grand Commander # Knight Commander # Companion...

 (1896 - 26 November 1948) was a British soldier and civil servant.

Life

Grigson was born in 1896 in the Vicarage at Pelynt

Pelynt

Pelynt is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated 20 miles west of Plymouth and four miles west-northwest of Looe. Pelynt has a population of around 1,124 ....

 to Canon William Shuckforth Grigson and Mary Beatrice Boldero, and was one of seven brothers, including Geoffrey Grigson

Geoffrey Grigson

Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson was a British writer. He was born in Pelynt, a village near Looe in Cornwall.-Life:...

, Kenneth Grigson and John Grigson

John Grigson

Air Commodore John William Boldero Grigson DSO, DFC & Two Bars was a British pilot in the Royal Air Force.-Life:...

. Five of the brothers died during the First and Second World Wars (the surviving brother being Geoffrey Grigson

Geoffrey Grigson

Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson was a British writer. He was born in Pelynt, a village near Looe in Cornwall.-Life:...

). Grigson was educated at Leatherhead

Leatherhead

Leatherhead is a town in the County of Surrey, England, on the River Mole, part of Mole Valley district. It is thought to be of Saxon origin...

 before matriculating to Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

.

During the First World War Grigson served as a Lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps

Machine Gun Corps

The Machine Gun Corps was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in World War I. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tanks in combat, and the branch was subsequently turned into the Tank...

, serving in four different theatres of war. After the war he joined the Indian Civil Service and rose up through the ranks, serving as Deputy Commissioner of the Central Provinces and Berar

Central Provinces and Berar

The Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India. The province comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered much of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Its capital was Nagpur. The Central Provinces was formed in...

. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India, and in 1948 was knighted. On 26 November 1948 the plane he was travelling on crashed, killing all sixteen passengers and five crew.

Personal life

Grigson and his wife had two children; Christopher Grigson

Christopher Grigson

Christopher William Baisely "Grig" Grigson was a British naval architect and electronics engineer who is credited with the invention of scanning electron diffraction.-Early life and education:...

, a respected engineer naval architect and Claudia, who later married Henry Chilver.