Wilfrid Grigson

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Sir Wilfrid Vernon Grigson CSI (1896–26 November 1948) was a British soldier and civil servant. He was born in the Vicarage at Pelynt, Cornwall, to Canon William Shuckford Grigson and Mary Beatrice Boldero, and grew up with six brothers. Five brothers died in the First and Second World Wars; the only surviving brother was Geoffrey. He studied at St John’s School, Leatherhead, and then Christ Church, Oxford. In World War I he served as a lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps in four theatres. After the war he joined the Indian Civil Service and rose to deputy commissioner of the Central Provinces and Berar. While living in Hyderabad State, his house was burned by Razakars. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India in 1945 and was knighted in 1948. He died on 26 November 1948 when the plane he was travelling on crashed. An obituary appeared in Nature. He and his wife had two children: Christopher Grigson, an engineer naval architect, and Claudia, who married Henry Chilver.