December 1 1947

Sir Robert Grieg's work for Agriculture

Sir Robert Greig, the well known Scottish agriculturist, died on Saturday in London. He became ill after attending a meeting last Thursday.

Born in 1874, Robert Blyth Greig, a native of Fife, was the eldest son of Mr George Greig of Balcurvie, in the parish of Markinch. He attended classes in agriculture at Edinburgh University, where he took the highest agricultural distinction at that time available - the diploma of the Highland Society.

In 1893 he went to Canada and was for some time a ranch manager in Saskatchewan. He returned to this country, and was lecturer in agriculture at the Durham College of Science and the Armstrong College, Newcaslte-on-Tyne. He held a similar post in Aberdeen University for seven years.

At Ottawa conference
Sir Robert was a member of the Scottish Agricultural Commission who visited Canada in 1908 and Australia in 1910. He was president of the of the Agricultural Section of the British Association when the Association met in South Africa; and he was the first chairman of the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux. He attended the Ottawa Conference as the only official representative from Scotland.

When the Small Landholder's Act was passed in 1912, he was appointed a member of the Board of Agriculture. That the choice was a wise one was proved by the successful development of the agricultural side of the Department's work.

At the outbreak of the First World War he received a commission in the Royal Scots and served in France, where was awarded the Military Cross. In 1917 his services were requisitioned from the War Office, and he returned to his duties on the Board of Agriculture. He was knighted in 1919, and two years later he was appointed chairman of the Board of Agriculture for Scotland in succession to Sir Robert Wright.

In 1928 when the Board of Agriculture became the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, Sir Robert Greig was appointed their permanent secretary, a post from which he retired in 1934.

In January 1935, Sir Robert was presented with his portrait by Sir Godfrey Collins, Secretary of State for Scotland, on behalf of the staff of the Department and the various associated agricultural colleges and research institutes in Scotland.

One of the outstanding achievements in Sir Robert's reign as secretary of the Department was the creation of a chain of agricultural research stations, among them the Rowett Research Institute and the Macaulay Soil Research Institute in Aberdeen, the Hannah Dairy Research Institute in the West of Scotland and the Animal Research Association in the East.

Sir Robert was a personal friend of the Canadian millionaire (Mr. T. B. Macaulay) whose generosity was largely responsible for the beginning of the soil research station at Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, which bears his name.

Scottish Chairman of L.M.S.
A director of the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company, Sir Robert was, in July 1940, appointed chairman of the L.M.S. Scottish Committee. He was also a director of David MacBrayne, Ltd, the Scottish Motor Traction Company, Ltd., and the Scottish Land Development Company. He was M.Sc. of Durham University, LL.D of St Andrews University, D.Sc. of the South African University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

For a number of years Sir Robert was a member of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and only last year, on the resignation of Lord Normand, he became the chairman of the Trustees.

In 1940, he was appointed chairman of the Scottish Gardens and Allotment Holders' Association, and he did admirable service in increasing the country's yield of vegetables.

Sir Robert married in 1903 a daughter of Sir George B. Hunter K.B.E. He is survived by Lady Greig, three sons and a daughter.