James Grant Bey (1840-1896)

James was a Scottish surgeon and Egyptologist. He was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire, and received his medical education at the University of Aberdeen. He worked in asylums in Aberdeen and Banff until he moved to Alexandria in 1866 to assist in treating a cholera outbreak. He returned briefly to Banff but settled permanently in Cairo in 1868. He served in a number of medical positions for the British Consulate in Cairo and the Egyptian government railways, and he was granted the honorary military title of ‘Bey’ in 1880. He also operated a clinic for travellers and colonial officials in the city.[1]

Grant’s introduction to Egyptology was as a friend of Charles Piazzi Smyth, on whose behalf he remeasured the Khufu’s pyramid in 1872 alongside Waynman Dixon, an engineer.[2] He first met Flinders Petrie in 1880 and introduced him to his ra’is Ali Gabri. In his autobiography, Petrie recalled: “Though I only had a very slight introduction to Dr Grant, he and Mrs Grant received me with the greatest kindness, and made me free of their house, so that for years it was my place of call in Cairo.”[3] Grant amassed a large collection of Egyptian objects in his home, which was well known among the archaeological community there.[4] He died in 1896 in Bridge of Allan, Stirling. Petrie recorded the following tribute to him in his autobiography:

Above all there was Dr. Grant, who cared for my health, and sometimes came out for a night of work at the Great Pyramid. We went in and examined the chambers of construction, and I had a terrifying time when he fainted in the well; to raise a very heavy man, barely conscious, up a shaft of seventy feet with scanty foothold, when at any moment he might sweep me away down to the bottom, was a risk not to be forgotten. The pyramid theorists were a continual amusement to the Grants and myself; one of them tried to file down the granite boss in the ante-chamber to the size required for the theory.[5]

Grant’s widow was Florence Sabina Grant (née Gibson; 1858–1946) who was originally from Liverpool. She was an original subscriber to the Institute and member of its General Committee. In 1905, she contributed £20 for the purchase of books on Egyptology for the Institute’s library, to be called the Grant Bey Memorial Shelf.[6] She was likely responsible for the gift of Grant objects to the University’s collections, although we have been unable to locate the precise date of this gift. A collection of over 4,000 items was given to the University of Aberdeen by Grant after his death.

 

[1] British Medical Journal 1896 Obituary – Dr James Andrew Sandilands Grant Bey, LLD. British Medical Journal 2, 427-428

[2] Gold, 77-79

[3] WMF Petrie 2013 Seventy Years in Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20

[4] Gold, 80-81

[5] Petrie, 26

[6] PUB/2/2/1/1 Annual Report 1904–05, p8

 

Over 300 artefacts in the Garstang Museum come from Grant's collection, including this faience shabti of the ancient Sudanese king Analamani