Sir Angus Grossart: supporter of enterprise (pic: Terry Murden)
As the driver of so many ideas and projects that would become established companies and institutions, Sir Angus Grossart, who has died aged 85, moved the Scottish business and cultural dials considerably throughout a long and productive career. A combination of foresight and a desire to build something better leaves a legacy of household name organisations and a portfolio of achievement for the arts that has enriched the nation and individuals alike.
His belief in the ability of Scotland to achieve greater things began in earnest in the late 1960s when, alongside his business partner Iain Noble, he launched the country’s first merchant bank. Noble Grossart became an engine of growth, financing and powering companies in a style to match its more illustrious rivals in the City. The pity is that it did not encourage others.
Sir Angus’s endeavours made him a wealthy man, but his deeper personal achievement was in galvanising the talents and opportunities he saw around him, who would help elevate Scotland as a country that believed in enterprise and who would build the companies to match the best.
Noble Grossart supported Argyll Foods, which later became Safeway, the bus entrepreneur Brian Souter and the metals-to-Rangers tycoon David Murray. He bought into Leith-born Tom Farmer’s plans for a chain of exhaust repair garages which became Kwik-Fit and turned Sir Tom into a billionaire when he sold it to Ford.
But Sir Angus’s support was not only for those with a grand plan, he also had time for the smaller enterprises, and was always keen to indulge others in their thoughts and ideas, though not always publicly.
While willing to engage the media, he liked to maintain a profile that did not aggrandise his role. He once invited me into the lounge at the offices of Noble Grossart in Queen Street and, seeing the opportunity for an interview, I reached for the notebook. “Now, we won’t be needing that,” he said, tapping me on the arm and offering one of his cheeky smiles. It was clear that the tea and cakes were in exchange for my views on the economy. Nothing more. Not on this occasion.
Angus Grossart was raised in Carluke in Lanarkshire, the son of a draper, and was educated at Glasgow Academy, going on to read law at Glasgow University. He moved to Edinburgh to study for the Scottish Bar and later completed an apprenticeship in chartered accountancy before setting out on the investment banking venture that came to define his career. His partnership with Sir Iain Noble in 1969 was borne out of a sense of adventure, but it was not a happy one and Sir Angus bought him out just two years later.
The journey since then has seen him sit on more than 20 boards, including Scottish & Newcastle, Trinity Mirror (now Reach) – publisher of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail – Royal Bank of Scotland and the Scottish Investment Trust.
In more recent years he became chairman of the Scottish Futures Trust, the government procurement body, while his artistic interests saw him take on an equally expansive range of directorships and leadership roles including he National Galleries of Scotland and the refurbishment of the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. He liked to indulge guests visiting his Georgian Queen Street offices with a resume of the oil paintings that adorned the walls.
A personal passion was golf and in his younger days he played off a scratch handicap, competing as an amateur in professional tournaments. Aged 22 he was runner-up in the British junior championships. In his later years he was a member of St Andrews and Muirfield.
Another passion, and a long labour of love, was the refurbishment of 16th-century Pitcullo Castle in Fife which he bought in 1977. A year later he married the artist Gay Thomson and they had a daughter Flure who now runs an interiors and design business in London.
Among his friends he included the actor Sir Sean Connery and the pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi, many of whose pieces he owned. Paolozzi sculpted Grossart twice: once for the Scottish National Gallery and once privately, as a gift.
While he was courted by politicians, he largely steered clear of party politics, though that did not make him immune from controversy. He remained loyal to Fred Goodwin after the former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland became the whipping boy for the financial crash of 2008.
“Fred had many admirable qualities, and posterity will form a view on his strategic mistakes and also on his personal views. I would not judge him,” he said in an interview a few years after Goodwin had gone.
It was, perhaps, typical of a man with a singular mind who was, nonetheless, a defender of others he thought deserved more credit for their actions.
“I’m sometimes accused of being very conservative,” he told The Sunday Times in a 2014 interview. “But I’m the guy who backed false teeth for sheep.
“It actually worked. It was for aged ewes — they couldn’t eat but they could still breed. It was a standard denture — one size fits all. I sent one of my colleagues out to test it. When he came back, he said, ‘As I walked out of the field, the sheep were following. They all seemed to be leering at me with the same smile.’ ”
Sir Angus Grossart, CBE, merchant banker and patron of the arts, born 6 April 1937, died 13 May 2022, aged 85
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