Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grant, Colquhoun (1764?-1835)
GRANT, Sir COLQUHOUN (1764?–1835), lieutenant-general, colonel of the 15th (king's) hussars, belonged to the branch of Grants of Gartonbeg. He joined the 36th foot at Trichinopoly immediately after his appointment to it as ensign in September 1793, became lieutenant in 1795, and in 1797 exchanged to the 25th (afterwards the 22nd) light dragoons, with which corps he was present at Malavelly and the capture of Seringapatam in 1799. In 1800 he became captain 9th dragoons, and the year after major in the 28th (Duke of York's) light dragoons. When that corps was disbanded in 1802 Grant became lieutenant-colonel 72nd highlanders. He was wounded at the head of his regiment at the recapture of the Cape of Good Hope in 1806. On 25 Aug. 1808 he exchanged to the 15th hussars, which under his command was greatly distinguished at Sahagun and in other affairs during the Corunna retreat. The regiment was employed at home in the midland counties during the 'Luddite' and other disturbances, and subsequently returned to Spain in 1813. Grant, who had been made a brevet-colonel and aide-de-camp to the prince regent, took the troops out. He commanded a hussar brigade at Morales, where he was wounded, and again at Vittoria. He commanded a brigade composed of the 13th and 14th light dragoons at the end of the war. He was made major-general and K.C.B. in 1814. Grant, who was one of the most dashing hussars in the service, commanded a brigade composed of the 7th and 15th British hussars and the 2nd hussars, king's German legion, at Waterloo, where he had several horses killed under him. He was appointed colonel 12th royal lancers in 1825, and transferred to his old corps, the 15th hussars, in 1827. He became lieutenant-general in 1830.
Grant was a K.C.B. and G.C.H., and had the orders of St. Vladimir in Russia and William the Lion in the Netherlands. He was at one time groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of Cumberland. He was returned to parliament at the general election of 1831 for Queensborough, which was disfranchised by the Reform Act. In 1833 he succeeded to large estates at Frampton, Dorsetshire, by bequest of his friend, Francis John Browne, formerly M.P. for that county (see Gent. Mag. vol. ciii. pt. i. p. 545). He stood for Poole in 1835, but was defeated by Mr. Byng, son of the former member. Grant married a daughter of the Rev. John Richards of LongBredy, Dorsetshire, whose wife was a sister of Mr. Browne. He had by her a son, who died, and a daughter, who married in 1834 Richard Brinsley Sheridan, grandson of the famous Sheridan, upon whom the Frampton estates subsequently devolved (Burke, Landed Gentry, 1886 ed., under 'Sheridan'). Grant died at Frampton, 20 Dec. 1835, in the seventy-second year of his age.
[Philippart's Royal Military Cal. 1820, iii. 359-60; Gent. Mag. new ser. v. 345. Some account of the 25th light dragoons in the Mysore campaign will be found in Combermere Corresp. vol. i. and in Colburn's United Service Mag. 1838. Some details connected with Grant's other services will be found in Cannon's Hist. Records 36th and 72nd Foot, and 15th Hussars; also in Napier's Peninsular War and Siborne's Waterloo.]