SIR EDWARD GRIGG

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 110, 5 November 1925, Page 6

SIR EDWARD GRIGG

NEW GOVERNOR OF KENYA

A VARIED' CAREER,

(FROM OUR OWN CpBUiMWBIJW.)

LONDON, 10th September.

Sir Edward Grigg and Lady .Grigg leave to-day for Kenya Colony, of Which the former is Governor-desig-nate. Lady Grigg, who is Lord and Lady Islington's daughter, is naturally known in New Zealand, where aha spent a few years of her early life, aiid Sir Edward Grigg, as Military Secretary to the Prince of Wales during his Dominion tours, made many friends in all the Dominionsi Previous to his visit with the Prince, however, Sir Edward had toured New Zealand on his own account.

An interesting article' on Grigg'a career is published in the "Daily Mail!' today. Few Englishmen who I'ave succeeded in public life have had such a varied career as the new Governor of Kenya, but he has never faced a more complex and delicate task than that which now confronts him. .

. "Grigg was at Winchester and at New College, Oxford, and at the University he won the Gazeford Prize for Greek verse,",says the writer of the "Mail 1* article. "He begatt bis - journalistic work, like several other well-known men, as secretary to Mr. G. E. Buckle* then editor "of 'Ths Times, 1 but after ayear went to as"" sist Mr. J. L. Garvin in that enthusiastic enterprise, 'The Outlook.' Afterwards he travelled for a couple • of years in India, Australia, New Zealand,, Canada, and the United States, !and he was still at the other end of the world when the late Lord Northclifle, on acquiring 'The Times,'- telegraphed inviting Mm to return to Printing Hou.se square as Colonial editor; For the next four years he remained on 'The Times,"incidentally again visiting Canada and the United States twice, _ and India once; but then the activities ol! 'The Round Table* group attracted him, and he became joint editor of that journal with Mr. Philip Kerir. UNIQUE WAR RECORD "In the Great War he seemed to have found his true vocation, for on joining the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards he was made, after a year in the trenches, G. 5.0.3 of the Guards Division in March, 1918, and took over in the midst of the great German attack; "I have heard the late Eari of ' Ypres say more than once, in his down-right way, that 'any fool can become a brigadier or even a diviBional eoinmander, but for young Ned Grigg, without any special influence, to finish,up as G. 5.0.1 of the Guards Division-, and to have done his job well, wag the most astonishing performance of the whole war.' It is no secret that Grigg might have hail far higher promotion, but he preferred to stay with the Guards. " Grigg's later career has been much. more in the public .eye.. Mr. Winston Churchill'brought him back from Cologne in 1919 to become Secretary of the Army Reorganisation Committee, but very soon the .Prince of Wales, who had served with him in. the field, requested him, in view of his knowledge of the Dominions, to accompany him on his two tours to Canada, ana to Australia, New Zea. land* and the West Indies, as his military secretary.

IMPERIAL OUTLOOK

"Just when everyone thought ho would continue to hold a Court ap--pointment, as no doubt he might have done, Grigg once more surprised his friends by becoming private secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George., He had always been ,■ a moderate Liberal, but the real explanation was that the dominating passion which has governed his whole career is faith in the future of tho British Empire. He originally went to Downing Street to help in the 1921 Imperial Conference, but was also a prominent figure at the San Eemo and Genoa Conferences, and remained with Mr. Lloyd George until the Coalition fell.. Loyalty to his chiefs is one of Grigg 's~ strong characteristics, and a warm personal regard subsists between him and.the political recluse of Churt. V "Many smiled again when Grigg, Oxford man and Guards officer, went down to Lancashire and sought political honours amid the clogs of Oldham: but again he proved right, for he won Oldham three times, and oa the first occasion headed the poJi. During this period he won a greater prize in the Hon r Joan Diekson-Poyn-der, tho only daughter of Lord and Lady Islington, wliO;h>» done a good deal of social work in tho Last Lnd. Ho has only just resigned the secretaryship of tho Kliodes Trust." 85, Fleet street ; .