Colonel John Grant Kinloch
(1807-1894)
Born at Logie House near Kirriemuir on 8 November 1807, John Grant Kinloch was the son of Thomas Kinloch and Anne née Morley.
After attending Sandhurst, he joined the 2nd Life Guards but afterwards obtained a captain’s commission in the 68th Foot. However, soon tiring of inactivity, he resigned and, along with many British officers, took part in the Carlist Wars then engulfing Spain, espousing the cause of Queen Isabella against her uncle Don Carlos. He was present with Sir Colin Campbell at the storming of San Sebastian.
On his return home he quit the army and at Edinburgh in 1837 he married Agnes Garden Campbell, daughter of Francis Garden Campbell of Troup and Glenlyon. ‘He still continued to take a deep interest in military affairs, and wrote numerous papers and pamphlets on national defence and military organisations’ (Aberdeen Press). ‘On the outbreak of the Crimean War his qualifications as a military organiser were recognise by his appointment as Inspector of the Foreign Legions which supported the Allied Army in that campaign,’ (The Scotsman) ‘an office he filled with much credit to himself and advantage to the country’ (Aberdeen Press).
‘On the establishment in 1857 of a regular police force, Colonel Grant Kinloch was appointed Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland, and this office he filled with the utmost satisfaction till 1873, when he was forced to resign owing to increasing years’ (The Scotsman). ‘He was the leading originator of the volunteer movement in Forfarshire, and was appointed the first colonel of the Angus Rifles. He was Commissioner of Supply for Forfarshire, and a member of the County Council. In all the affairs of the county he took a deep interest; in politics he was a strong Conservative. […] In private he was a man of strong gentlemanly instincts, and his kindliness of manner and native generosity of heart endeared him to all with whom he came in contact’ (Aberdeen Press).
He appears on the 1881 census staying at a boarding house in Westminster with his daughter Anne. He gave ‘Land Proprietor and Magistrate’ as his profession.
He died, aged 87, on 7 May 1894 at his residence, Logie House near Kirriemuir in Forfarshire, leaving an estate valued at £23,836. He was buried in the Kinloch mausoleum on the Logie estate.
[The above account of his career is largely taken from two obituaries, one in The Scotsman and the other in the Aberdeen Press and Journal. Both were printed on 9 May 1894.]