Grimond of Firth, Jo Grimond

▪ 1994

      BARON, British politician (b. July 29, 1913, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland—d. Oct. 24, 1993, Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland), led Britain's small and centrist Liberal Party from 1956 to 1967. Grimond, the son of a wealthy jute manufacturer and committed Liberal Party member, attended Eton and the University of Oxford. He earned a degree in 1935 and was called to the bar in 1937. The following year he married into the most prominent of Liberal families when he wed the granddaughter of Lord Asquith, the last leader of the Liberal Party to serve as prime minister. During World War II, Grimond served in a Scottish infantry regiment. In 1945 he was asked to stand as the party's candidate for Orkney and Shetland islands, Britain's northernmost constituency, but he lost by a narrow margin. In 1950 he ran again, but this time he won the election. After becoming leader of the party in 1956, Grimond helped raise the standing of the party, and by 1963 he had established it as a nonsocialist alternative to the Conservative Party. A strong turnout for the Labour Party in 1964, however, left the Liberals with no role to play. Grimond resigned as party leader in 1967 but continued to represent his constituency. In 1983 he moved to the House of Lords on becoming Baron Grimond. His books include The Liberal Future (1959), The Common Welfare (1978), Memoirs (1979), A Personal Manifesto (1983), and The St. Andrews of Jo Grimond (1992).

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