View source for Effingham Grant

{{short description|British-Romanian businessman (1820 - 1892)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
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| name               = Effingham Grant
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| birth_date         = {{Birth year|1820}}
| birth_place        = [[Guernsey]], [[Channel Islands]]
| death_date         = {{Death year and age|1892|1820}} 
| death_place        = [[Bucharest]], [[Kingdom of Romania]]
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| occupation         = Diplomat, businessman
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| spouse             = {{marriage | Zoe Racoviță | 28 October 1850 | 1892}}
| children           = Constantin, {{ill|Nicolae Grant|lt=Nicolae|ro|Nicolae Grant}}, Robert Effingham 
| mother             = Marie Le Lacheur
| father             = Edward Effingham Grant 
| relatives          = [[Maria Rosetti]], Sophia, Ann Mayer, Eliza Marian 
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'''Effingham Grant''' (1820–1892) was a British diplomat, businessman, and philanthropist who settled in [[Romania]].

==Biography==
He was born on the island of [[Guernsey]], the first child and only son of Lieutenant   Edward Effingham Grant (born in [[Markyate]], [[Hertfordshire]] in 1795) and Marie Grant (born Marie Le Lacheur in [[Saint Peter Port]] in 1789). He had four living sisters: [[Maria Rosetti]] (b. Marie Grant in 1819), Sophia (b. 1821), Ann Mayer (b. 1822), and Eliza Marian (b. 1824).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.priaulxlibrary.co.uk/articles/article/maria-rosetti|title=Maria Rosetti|website=www.priaulxlibrary.co.uk|access-date=April 25, 2021}}</ref>

In 1837 Effingham Grant found a vacancy at the British Consulate in [[Wallachia]], under the command of Sir [[Robert Gilmour Colquhoun]], who would take care of his training. A year later, his sister, Marie, paid him a visit and decided to move to [[Bucharest]]. It was then that she met [[C. A. Rosetti]], Grant's close friend and a member of the [[Rosetti family]] of [[boyar]]s, who fell in love with her and later married her.<ref>{{citation|first=Paul|last= Cernovodeanu|title=Punți între două lumi. Britanici printre români|trans-title=Bridges between two worlds. Britons among Romanians| magazine=[[Magazin Istoric]]|language=ro|date= July 1995}}</ref>

On October 28, 1850 Grant married Zoe Racoviță (1827–1892), the daughter of Alexandru Racoviță and Ana Golescu, and the granddaughter of [[Dinicu Golescu]].<ref name="brit"/> After the marriage, the family came into possession of the Belvedere Palace and the related estate, inherited by Zoe. The neighborhood where their residence was (between [[Bucharest North railway station|Gara de Nord]] and the [[Giulești]] Military Hospital) is now called ''Cartierul Grant'' (the Grant Quarter).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ziare.com/cultura/cultura-generala/cartierul-bucurestean-grant-botezat-de-o-familie-boiereasca-365309|title=Cartierul bucureștean Grant, "botezat" de o familie boierească|trans-title=The Grant neighborhood in Bucharest, "baptized" by a boyar family|website=Ziare.com|first=Madalina|last=Ionescu|date=July 22, 2008|language=ro|access-date=April 25, 2021}}</ref><ref name="brit"/>

[[File:Anunt Fonderia de la Belvedere in Ziarul Romanul din martie 1864.jpg|thumb|Announcement of the establishment of the Belvedere Foundry, 1864]]
In 1849, Grant was sent by Colquhoun to [[Transylvania]], to meet with [[Józef Bem]] and obtain a first-hand report on the Russian intervention in the area, during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848|Hungarian Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq-vCwAAQBAJ|last=Roberts|first=Ian W.|title=Nicholas I and the Russian intervention in Hungary|date=1991|publisher=[[UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies]]|isbn=978-1-349-21195-1|location=Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire|oclc=1003866265|page=87}}</ref> In a letter from 1851, addressed to [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Henry Palmerston]], the British [[Foreign Secretary]], Colquhoun mentioned  selecting Grant as secretary when he was only 16, noted that Grant had become very competent in French, German, Italian, Greek, and Romanian, and praised the way he handled his official duties, particularly in 1848–1849 (at the time of the [[Wallachian Revolution of 1848|Wallachian Revolution]]).<ref name="brit">{{cite web|url=https://www.istoriibritaniceinbucuresti.ro/en/places-and-personalities_doc_15_effingham-grant-and-maria-rosetti_pg_0.htm|website=www.istoriibritaniceinbucuresti.ro|title=Effingham Grant and Maria Rosetti|access-date=April 25, 2021}}</ref> In late 1853 Colquhoun went on a fact-finding mission to [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]], [[Serbia]], and [[Herzegovina]]. At the start of the [[Crimean War]], Grant was left in charge of the British Consulate in Bucharest; in early January 1854 he was reporting to the Foreign Office on [[Russian Empire|Russian]] pressures in Wallachia.<ref name="Jianu1">{{Cite book|last=Jianu|first=Angela|title=A circle of friends Romanian revolutionaries and political exile, 1840–1859|chapter=January–February 1854: London|year=2011|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]|location=Leiden; Boston |isbn=978-90-04-21023-3|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004187795.i-384.36|oclc=1162072274|pages=258–262}}</ref>{{rp|259}} In early April the Russians requested the departure of Western consuls from Bucharest; he was given  permission to leave his post, and leave the British subjects under the protection of the Belgian consul.<ref name="Jianu2">{{Cite book|last=Jianu|first=Angela|title=A circle of friends Romanian revolutionaries and political exile, 1840–1859|chapter=The Crimean War|year=2011|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]|location=Leiden; Boston |isbn=978-90-04-21023-3|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004187795.i-384.38|oclc=1162072274|pages=273–277}}</ref>{{rp|273}}

Grant later decided to give up his diplomatic career and to devote himself to business. In 1861 he had already opened a department store called "The English Shop" in Bucharest. In 1863 he established the Foundry E. Grant & Co. Belvedere, the first foundry in Bucharest. He also built there a large workshop for assembling and repairing agricultural machinery. In 1865, at the National Exhibition of Agriculture and Industry, he was awarded a silver medal for his "collection of machineries, mainly for the steam mill handled by men, and particularly for his initiative of setting up the first foundry in the country and of spreading lots of foreign agricultural machineries".<ref name="Lucaci">{{cite journal|url=http://annals.seap.usv.ro/index.php/annals/article/viewFile/828/750|title=Anglo–Romanian economic relations during the reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza|journal=The USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration|first=Adina|last=Lucaci|year=2015|volume=15|issue=2|pages=85–90}}</ref>{{rp|89}} All that remains nowadays from that industrial establishment is the [[water tower]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://identitatea.ro/podul-grant-bucuresti/|title=Podul Grant, Griviței, Giulești: lucruri mai puțin știute despre zona Gării de Nord din București|website=identitatea.ro|date=23 September 2018 | language=ro|access-date=April 25, 2021}}</ref>

In 1864, Grant founded the first tobacco processing workshop in Romania, the ''Manufactura de Tutun de la Belvedere'' (Belvedere Tobacco Factory). Grant established in 1879 the ''Regia Monopolurilor Statului'' in the area; he parceled out the land around the factory and sold it to the workers, giving birth to what would become the [[Regie, Bucharest|Regie]] neighborhood of [[Sector 6 (Bucharest)|Sector 6]] of Bucharest. He was also responsible for the construction of a bread factory on Calea Plevnei; as early as 1863, he brought equipment from the United Kingdom for this purpose, and the building was completed in 1868. In 1865 Grant began a new business, growing [[Orchidaceae|orchids]]; later, this business gave the name of ''Strada Orhideelor'' (Orchid Street). Another toponymic in the neighborhood was ''Groapa lui Ouatu'' (Ouatu's Pit), named after a certain Mr. Watt, a business associate of Grant.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.puterea24.ro/social/highlander-de-dambovita-un-cunoscut-pod-bucurestean-poarta-numele-unui-clan-din-muntii-scotiei-139418.html|title=Highlander de Dâmbovița. Un cunoscut pod bucureștean poartă numele unui clan din munții Scoției|trans-title=Highlander of Dâmbovița. A well-known bridge in Bucharest is named after a clan from the Scottish mountains|website=www.puterea24.ro|first=Mircea|last=Bujoreanu|date=June 27, 2016|language=ro|access-date=April 25, 2021|archive-date=25 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425230344/https://www.puterea24.ro/social/highlander-de-dambovita-un-cunoscut-pod-bucurestean-poarta-numele-unui-clan-din-muntii-scotiei-139418.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Grant was also the editor of the political newspaper ''Concordia'', which supported the [[National Liberal Party (Romania, 1875)|National Liberal Party]].<ref name="Lucaci"/>

[[File:OldGrantBridge.JPG|thumb|Remains of [[Podul Grant]] in Bucharest]]
One of his sons, Constantin Grant, fought as a soldier in the [[Romanian War of Independence]], and then in [[Algeria]] with the [[French Foreign Legion]], while another son, {{ill|Nicolae Grant|ro}} (1868–1950), became a noted painter.<ref name="brit"/> A third son was the civil engineer Robert Effingham Grant, who participated in the construction of [[Podul Grant]]; the bridge, built in 1910, was named after Effingham Grant.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.libertatea.ro/stiri/107-ani-de-la-inaugurarea-podului-grant-din-bucuresti-678523|title=107 ani de la inaugurarea Podului Grant din București. La început era doar o structură metalică|newspaper=[[Libertatea]]|first=Petre|last= Dobrescu|date=December 26, 2016|language=ro|access-date=April 25, 2021}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Effingham}}
[[Category:1820 births]]
[[Category:1892 deaths]]
[[Category:Guernsey people]]
[[Category:British expatriates in Romania]]
[[Category:19th-century British diplomats]]
[[Category:19th-century British businesspeople]]
[[Category:Romanian company founders]]
[[Category:Romanian industrialists]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Bucharest]]
[[Category:British people of the Crimean War]]
[[Category:People of the Revolutions of 1848]]