Duff James Cunningham Grant

Duff, James Cunningham Grant, an eminent Indian soldier and statesman, was born at Banff in 1789. being the son of Mr. John Grant of Kincardine O'Neill. He assumed the name of Duff from his mother, who inherited the property of an uncle, Mr. Duff of Eden. He joined the Bombay army at the age of 16, and after winning military distinction, especially at the siege of Maliah, became Mountstuart Elphinstone's right-hand man in the subjugation of the Mahratta chiefs. The discharge of this duty led him to Sattara, the centre of the confederacy, where he was the first British resident, and he succeeded in establishing satisfactory relations between the warlike tribes and the East India Company's Government. His health broke down under the strain of anxious work, and, returning to his native country, he died at Eden in 1858. His son, the Right Hon. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, born in 1829, after a long parliamentary career, became Under-Secretary of State for India in 1868, and for the Colonies in 1880. He went out next year as Governor of Madras, and resigned in 1886.