Joseph (Jo) Grimond


(Baron Grimond of Firth)

1913 - 1993

Politician. Born in St. Andrews (Fife), the son of a wealthy Dundee jute manufacturer, Grimond was educated at Eton and Oxford. He was called to the Bar in 1937, and after army service during World War II, was elected as Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland in 1950. Between 1956 and 1967, he was a highly respected Leader of the Liberal Party, during which time he did much to modernise that party, re-aligning it as a radical left-of-centre grouping. Grimond was also an active pro-European. He served as Rector of the University of Edinburgh between 1960 and 1964.

Retiring as a politician in 1983, he was appointed a life peer in the same year. He died in Kirkwall (Orkney).


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