Eustace Foster GRANT-DALTON (1877-1970)

Eustace Foster Grant-Dalton (1877-1970) is mentioned in letters written by May and Ethel Sladden in 1914.

Eustace was born on 12^th May 1877 in Belfast, County Antrim, the eldest of three children of Gerald Grant-Dalton and his wife, Emma Kate (née Skilbeck).  Eustace’s father was an officer in the army, hence the reason for the family being in Ireland at the time of Eustace’s birth.

Like his father, Eustace became a career soldier, receiving his commission in October 1889 into the Prince of Wales Own Yorkshire Regiment.  He saw active service in the Boer War and was wounded, but returned to his regiment in 1901.  He later served in Ireland and India before being promoted to Captain in 1909 and posted to the 1st Battalion in 1913.

It was whilst in India that Eustace married his first wife, Kathleen Farrell (known as Kitty), on 3^rd October 1907 in the Roman Catholic Church, Murree.  A daughter, Barbara Helen, was born in Surrey in 1911.

Eustace was among the first soldiers to arrive in France after the outbreak of war in 1914.  He was wounded at the First Battle of the Aisne and was reported missing on 20^th September, news of which had filtered through to the English papers by 28^th September.  It was then incorrectly reported in the Casualty List of 5^th October that he had been killed in action.  May Sladden saw his name in the list and commented on this in a letter of the same day to her sister, Kathleen.  A couple of weeks later this was shown to be incorrect as Eustace had, in fact, been taken prisoner.  In a letter of 23^rd October 1914 to her mother, Ethel Sladden remarked that she had noticed in a newspaper report of 20^th October that Captain Grant-Dalton, reported killed a month ago was now reported a wounded prisoner.  Eustace spent the rest of the war in German prisoner of war camps, being repatriated on 1^st November 1918.

Eustace continued serving with the army after the war, eventually retiring in 1927.  His wife, Kitty, died in Cape Town in 1929.

Eustace later married twice more:  firstly in 1936 to widow, Jessie Mackay Young, and secondly in 1959 to Sylvia Joan Cecile Grant-Dalton (née West), the widow of his cousin, Charles.  They lived at Brodsworth Hall, Doncaster.  Eustace died on 27^th August 1970 at Quinish on the Isle of Mull, where the family owned land.