He was the Managing Director of Govan Bros. Ltd., a leading business house of the time. The company was managing agents for a number of industrial enterprises. Grant Govan was a keen pilot and the founder of
Indian National Airways Ltd, an aviation company formed in 1933 under Govan Bros Ltd. Apart from the airline, Govan Bros operated
Delhi Flour Mills, set up
Sugar Mills-Raza Buland at
Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, and had a travel department, Govan Agencies (the Govan Bros Ltd businesses were sold in 1947 to the Ramkrishna Dalmia led
Dalmia Group). Apart from the airline, Govan had other interests in aviation, like the
Delhi Flying Club which he founded in 1928. He founded the
Roshanara Cricket Club in Delhi, named after the
nearby tomb of
Roshanara Begum, with a group of friends in 1922. The club was officially inaugurated by
Marquess of Reading in December 1922. Govan had the distinction of being both the founding President of the
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1928, a position he held till 1933 and the
Cricket Club of India (CCI) in 1933. He, along with then BCCI secretary
Anthony De Mello, was instrumental in getting the BCCI affiliated with the
Imperial Cricket Conference (now
International Cricket Council) in 1928. In 1931 BCCI with Govan at its helm invited the
Marylebone Cricket Club to tour India for the first time, with the support of
Lord Irwin, the then
Viceroy of India. When he died in 1940,
Dr. P. Subbaroyan, then President of the (BCCI), issued a statement which read "In the death of Mr. Grant Govan, Indian Cricket has lost a friend ...". After his death, a few of his friends set up the
Grant Govan Memorial Homes in Delhi. These are meant to be retirement homes for
Anglo-Indians with limited means and were inaugurated by
Marchioness of Linlithgow, wife of the then
Viceroy of India in October 1940. ==References==