Robert Melville Grindlay

Captain Robert Melville Grindlay FRSA MRAS FZS FRHS FRBS (23 October 1786 – 9 December 1877) was a British soldier, artist, and banker during the 18th and 19th centuries. Born in London, England he served as an East India Company agent in the Bombay Army, during which time he made a large collection of sketches and drawings of the Indian subcontinent. Upon returning to England he founded the multinational commercial firm Grindlays Bank and various philanthropic initiatives. Early years and family Grindlay was born on 23 October 1786, one of eight children, to The Reverend Dr John Grindlay DCL LLD (1756–1818) and his wife Elizabeth (d.1843) in the village of St. Mary-le-Bone (now Marylebone) near London, and baptised on 17 November of that same year at St Marylebone Parish Church. His grandparents James (d. 1765) and Christina Grindlay (née Govan), attorneys at law, had emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina from Glasgow, Scotland during the early 18th century, after previous generations had resettled in Lanarkshire from the North Midlands. However, his father returned to the United Kingdom and attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, before taking up various ecclesiastical positions at Oxford Chapel, Marylebone, Bishop's Caundle Church, Dorest, and the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Horne, Surrey, as well various charitable enterprises, including The Philanthropic Society. Grindlay was educated in London and left school at the age of 17, having secured a position as a cadet in the Honourable East India Company (HEIC).