Katherine Grant, 12th Countess of Dysart

Katherine Grant of Rothiemurchus, 12th Countess of Dysart (1 June 1918 – 8 November 2011) was a Scottish peer.^[1]

She was born Katherine Greaves, daughter of Wenefryde Agatha Greaves, who succeeded as 10th Countess of Dysart (1889–1975) in 1935 and Major Owain Edward Whitehead Greaves. On her mother's death Lady Katherine's elder sister, Lady Rosamund Agnes (1914–2003) became the 11th Countess of Dysart, but never married or had issue, on her death in December 2003 Lady Katherine succeeded to the titles of Countess of Dysart and Lady Huntingtower.^[2] Under the Scottish peerage tradition, it is a title that goes to an eldest daughter if there is no male child. It has moved from earl to countess for centuries. Hence, after Lady Katherine’s death, her son Johnnie (John Peter Grant) took on the title 13th Earl of Dysart while his son James became Lord Huntingtower. The Huntingtower title, which also shifts between male and female offspring, is more of a nominal one chosen by one of Lady Grant’s ancestors, none of whom, it seems, ever lived at Huntingtower, on the western edge of Perth.

During the Second World War, the Countess married an outstanding soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel John Peter Grant younger of Rothiemurchus in 1941 (1915–1987) who succeeded his father as 15th Grant of Rothiemurchus. They had two children:

• Lady Jane Margery Grant (born 2 February 1943), married Andrew Robert Fowell Buxton in 1965 and has issue
• John Grant, 13th Earl of Dysart (born 22 October 1946), later her successor as Earl of Dysart and owner of the Rothiemurchus estate, married Philippa Chance on 8 May 1971 and has issue

She died in 2011, aged 93.^[3]

References