Alexander (‘Sandy’) Grant: Views from Lancaster and Beyond

Summary

THE year 1979 saw a series of momentous events whose consequences still reverberate today. Margaret Thatcher became prime minister of the United Kingdom, Saddam Hussein took over in Iraq, Rhodesia was supplanted by Zimbabwe, the U.S.S.R. invaded Afghanistan – and Sandy Grant arrived to take up a lectureship in history at Lancaster University. He came from Queen's University, Belfast, and was naturally highly recommended by, among others, Lewis Warren – though if memory serves it was stressed that allowances would have to be made for his fervent support of clubs competing in the Scottish football league. For the next thirty-five years, until Sandy's retirement in September 2014, Lancaster's history department was his professional home and it is on his role as a contributor to departmental life that this appreciation begins. Sandy replaced Anthony Tuck, who left for the mastership of Collingwood College, Durham, and Sandy made an immediate impact, not least by strengthening the department's ability to offer medieval and renaissance courses in genuinely British history at a time when such were far from fashionable. He progressed to senior lecturer in 1992 – in an era when such appointments were exceptionally difficult to obtain – and he was awarded a very well-merited readership in 1995. Never a shrinking violet, Sandy also established himself as a lively and vociferous – as well as, in some guises, a challenging and dissenting – colleague, one who was and remained very much part of the lifeblood of the department. What marked out his many contributions to the department's affairs can be summed up in two words: passion and commitment.

Only the most introverted of Sandy's colleagues remained unaware of his impressive range of academic contacts beyond Lancaster, especially north of the border; none failed to appreciate his burgeoning scholarly reputation, particularly (but by no means exclusively) in the field of medieval Scottish studies. We shall say more about his research and publications shortly but it was characteristic of Sandy's loyalty to the department that as a co-editor and/or contributor he was involved in the production of as many as seven books that bore something of a distinctive ‘Lancaster stamp’.