Grant was born in Kidderpore, Bengal, India, the eldest son of Charles Grant, chairman of the directors of the British East India Company.
Subsequently a works and offices were built at Kidderpore, near Calcutta.
The memorial built in the Indo-Mughal style by William Ingram Keir, who also designed the Kidderpore Bridge, buildings at Bengal Engineering and Science University in Shibpur, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and Islamia College, and also replaced the 1934 earthquake affected spire of St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata with a tower.