Grieg was born in
Glasgow on 17 November 1880, the ninth of the eleven children of Jessie,
née Thomson (1844–1915) and Robert David Greig (1838–1900), a prosperous merchant and founder of the
Glasgow and West of Scotland Association for Women's Suffrage. Greig was educated at
Glasgow Academy and
Merchiston Castle School before studying medicine at the
University of Glasgow. Academically gifted, Greig was also an excellent
rugby union and
tennis player. After a few years practising as a junior doctor in the
Gorbals, he joined the navy in 1906 and won the gold medal during his training at
Haslar. In 1909, Greig entered officer training at the
Royal Naval College, Osborne, where he met Prince Albert, later
George VI. He served as a mentor for the gauche and diffident prince, and the two served together in
HMS Cumberland, where he was posted as a surgeon. He was transferred to the
Royal Marines in 1914, and was captured at the fall of
Antwerp, spending eight months as a
prisoner of war. Earlier his elder brother Robert C Greig of Capelrig, Renfrewshire had founded the firm of RC Greig stockbrokers of Glasgow and London, and his elder sister Constance had married John Scrimgeour, stockbroker in London. Released by a prisoner exchange, Greig married Phyllis Scrimgeour (a cousin of John Scrimgeour) on 16 February 1916, by whom he had three children: • Bridget Greig (b. 1917), married Sir
Ninian Buchan-Hepburn, 6th Baronet in 1958 • Jean Greig (1920–1973), married
Joseph Cooper in 1947 • Captain Sir
(Henry Louis) Carron Greig, KCVO, CBE, DL (1925–2012), a businessman and ship broker,
Gentleman Usher in Ordinary to
Queen Elizabeth II from 1961 to 1995; he married
Monica Stourton in 1955; the couple had three sons, one of whom,
Louis Stourton Greig (born 1956), served as
Page of Honour to
Queen Elizabeth II, as well as a daughter. Greig joined the company of
HMS Malaya in June 1917, rejoining Prince Albert, and helped cure the Prince of the severe
peptic ulcers from which he suffered. During the next seven years, he was extensively in attendance on the Prince, receiving an appointment as an
equerry to the Prince in 1918. Prince Albert and his Equerry both joined the
Royal Air Force in 1919 (Greig rising to the rank of
Wing Commander), and the two
were partners at
Wimbledon, an event which brought Greig's influence with the Prince into public light. He continued to mentor and advise the Prince (created
Duke of York in 1920), acting as a surrogate father and encouraging his social life. He encouraged the Duke of York's courtship of
Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, which was ultimately to have significant consequences for Greig's relations with the Duke. While he was made a
CVO (26 April 1923) for his services, Elizabeth, as Duchess of York, gradually displaced him as an intimate of the Duke. Ultimately, Greig was omitted from a royal tour of the
Balkans and consequently resigned his equerryship. However, he was created a
Gentleman Usher in Ordinary on 1 March 1924. Greig's subsequent life was uneventful. He successfully joined J&A Scrimgeour (a firm connected with his wife) as a
stockbroker. In 1932 he was appointed Deputy Ranger of Richmond Park, and he and his family took up residence at Thatched House Lodge. He went into a brief eclipse under King
Edward VIII, who disliked him, and resigned his ushership on 21 July 1936. However, upon the accession of his friend, King George VI, he was appointed an Extra Gentleman Usher (1 March 1937), and was also elected chairman of Wimbledon. He rejoined the RAF in 1939, serving as a liaison with the
Air Ministry and reaching the rank of
group captain. He was operated on for cancer in 1952, but succumbed in early 1953 and was buried in
Ham, Surrey. ==Political activities==