Acting Major Ronald H Grierson

Ronald Hugh Grierson was born Rolf Hans Griessmann on 6 August 1921 in Nuremberg.

He moved to Paris with his parents aged 11 and attended the Lycee Pasteur until 1936 when he moved to London.

Ronald Grierson attended Balliol College in Oxford, and, while working with other undergraduates in a forestry camp, was arrested and interned. He was cleared after three months by a tribunal and then joined an Army Pioneer Corps unit until he managed to obtain a transfer and commission in the Army Air Corps.

In April 1943 Lieutenant Grierson attended parachute training course number 60 at RAF Ringway, and was posted to the 1st SAS.

He saw action in Italy, France and Germany, the Low Countries and Norway, as well as being Mentioned in Despatches in August 1944.

By 1946 Lt Grierson was posted to the Black Watch, and then demobbed at the end of the War.

He then returned to the SAS in 1949, becoming a Captain, then acting Major shortly afterwards.

After retiring from the Army, he worked in a variety of political and economic roles, including as a director of banking firm Warburg and Co, and Chrysler.

In 1966 he married Heather, Viscountess Bearsted whom he met at Harvard, and with whom he had a son.

Sir Grierson was knighted in 1990, and was a member of the Arts Council and a trustee of the Royal Academy.

Sir Ronald Grierson died on 23 October 2014.