GROSSART, Sir Angus McFarlane McLeod
Sir Angus Grossart, Kt, CBE, is a Scottish businessman.
Born in Lanarkshire, 6 April 1937
Schooled at The Glasgow Academy and
studied law at Glasgow University.
He proudly recalls honing his business skills at a Barrowlands stall selling reject toffee.
He is chairman and executive director of Edinburgh-based merchant bank Noble Grossart.
His many high profile positions have included:
Vice Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland;
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, National Galleries of Scotland, 1988-97;
Chairman of the Fine Art Society;
Chairman of Lyon & Turnbull, auctioneers.
Current claimed personal wealth £80M
Practiced Law at Edinburgh bar for 7 years specialising in Tax & Commerce.
Founded Noble Grossart Bank, with Iain Noble in 1969 but Noble sold out after 2 years.
1978 fell foul of Financial Regulators and was criticised.
Who’s Who entry (2003):
Grossart, Sir Angus (McFarlane McLeod), Kt 1997; CBE. 1990; DL; Managing Director, since 1969, and Chairman, Noble Grossart Ltd, Merchant Bankers, Edinburgh, since 1990; Chairman, Scottish Investment Trust Plc, since 1975, merchant banker;
born 6th April 1937;
3rd son of William John White Grossart and Mary Hay Gardiner,
married 1978, Mrs Gay Thomson; one daughter.
Educated Glasgow Academy; Glasgow University (MA 1958, LLB 1960). CA. 1962; Member of Faculty of Advocates, 1963.
Practiced at the Scottish Bar, 1963- 1969.
Major directorships include:
Edinburgh US Tracker Trust (formerly American Trust); The Royal Bank of Scotland (Vice Chairman); Scottish Financial Enterprise; British Petroleum Scottish Board; Trinity Mirror (formerly Mirror Group) Plc; Scottish & Newcastle Plc; Scotland Internat; Edinburgh Fund Managers Plc; Member Scottish Development Agency; Dir, St. Andrews Management Inst., 1990-97 (Chm. Adv. Council, 1994-97); Chm., Bd. Of Trustees, National Galleries of Scotland, 1988-97 (Trustee, 1986-97); Trustee and Dep. Chm, National Heritage Memorial Fund; Vice President, Scottish Opera; Director Edinburgh International Film Festival, 1994-96; Friends of Royal Scottish Academy; Chairman Fine Art Society., 1998- . Formerly: Trustee, Scottish Civic Trust; Director Scottish National Orchestra; Member Scottish Industrial Development Adv, Bd. FRSE 19989. DL 1985; Hon. DBA Strathclyde, 1998. Hon FCIBS 1999. Lord Provost of Glasgow Award for public service 1994. Formerly, Scottish Editor, British Tax Encyc., and British Tax Rev.
Recreations:
golfing (runner-up, British Youth’s Golf Championship, 1957; Captain Scottish Youths Internat., 1956-57), the applied and decorative arts, Scottish castle restoration.
Address: 48 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 3NR. Telephone 0131 226 7011. Clubs: New, Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers (Edinburgh); Royal and Ancient (St. Andrews)
20-11-2003 THERE is a quartet of ultra-high net-worth individuals we have chosen to omit from the list. In the case of Tom Hunter, David Murray, Sir Angus Grossart and Chris Gorman it is impossible for us to make an accurate assessment of their income because of the labyrinth of company structures that have been created.
To read the whole article CLICK HERE
14-11-2008 - Sir Angus Grossart 'must quit SFT'
CLICK HERE
16-05-2009 - Having read The Scotsman article it is hard to believe that Sir Angus Grossart's cross over directorships show a lack of self interest whilst on the one hand directorships of banks are shown to buy and sell so called works of art his directorahip of a Fine Art auction house and of Scottish region galleries would seem to display a conflict of interest that would require the wisdom of Solomon rather than his apparent patron King Midas.
One wonders how the crass daubings of family members find their way into corporate and Scottish galleries! It would seem that he grants himself not just the privilege of sitting on his bamboo wall but of joining the mellee on such sides as suit him, frequently several sides at once it would seem.
This type of behaviour calls into question the integrity of the entire Scottish banking and legal structure!
CLICK HERE
We note with interest that on Martin Frost's web site at CLICK HERE he says:
Note: Since my articles on the RBS appeared on this web site I have been approached by a number of press men who have enquired about possible ‘dirt’ on Sir Angus Grossart. I refuse to be drawn on possible criminal indiscretions or gender preferences. I am not prepared to comment further than that which is to be found in the web section ‘The Art of Spying’.
12-12-2009 - Sir Angus Grossart Featured in The Scotsman - an interesting comentary related to the dynastic behaviour of The Grossart family and comments thereon:
'For details of the secretive and seemingly malign Speculative Society of Edinburgh, of which Sir Angus Grossart and his considerably less successful nephew Hamish Grossart are both members with some of the most 'dubious' characters in legal and banking circles in Scotland - and for a membership list with certain details and apparent links with Satanism as with the layout of St. Andrew Square, one of the most prestigious addresses in Scottish business circles, home of the failed Royal Bank of Scotland of which Sir Angus Grossart was a director, the bank that has had to be subsidised by British tax payer to stay afloat'.
'There are those who question why the likes of Sir Angus Grossart are still seen as doyens of banking, having presided over such a debacle and why tax payers are expected to bail out the bank whilst he still boasts of the £90 Million he made in the good years!'
For the whole article: CLICK HERE
There is an interesting if utterly sychophantic recent article in The Scotsman - very light weight and very tongue in cheek CLICK HERE
One commentator recently said:
You summed him up very well. He also reminds me of Rushton & Co. in the book, "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists". Here was a man like Gusset that ripped off and skimmed off everyone, using his influence on all the boards and the Council, positions, etc., as a cover up for his own greed and self-indulgence. Clearly, this man lives in a different world from everyone else, similar to the late Robert Maxwell. He puts out all this public persona, "how great thou art" when in reality, many hard working, low wage earners suffer under him. I'm quite sure these "salt of the earth" would love just one day in his rich shoes and have just one leaf out of his bank book!
How can this man possibly be totally effective anywhere when he serves on so many boards. Does this then make him Jack of all trades and Master of none? Or, most likely he is on all these boards to gain inside information for his own ends.
Interesting that the reporter notes that Gusset spoke for a full 5 minutes without being able to look him in the eye! So what is he trying to hide?
The previous commentator summed it up well. He most definitely is a rotten, stinking noble from Robert the Bruce's era.
From what I have learned and all those both family, associates and journalists I have spoken with he is universally reveilled and the commentator is apt in his comment whilst the interviewer was far from competent at portraying this odious robber baron with his finger in far too many Scottish pies, to be of benefit, but a more likely cause of a deeply corrupting disease in Scottish society - where despite his money he is and will always remain an outsider disliked but feared whereas his nephew Hammish Grossart is merely disliked and despised particularly for the nasty little inadequates methods of buying people as praise singers.
It would seem to be a family trait that has made them seriously unpopular with many, though few dare tell the truth!
To understand the revolting nature of this man:
Insult to victims of Nazi holocaust as Scots Banker Grossart claims former RBS Chief Sir Fred Goodwin endured 'shades of Kristallnacht'
An insult to victims of Nazi Germany:
Sir Fred Goodwin’s suffering compared by Scots Banker to victims of holocaust.
Sir Angus Grossart, speaking in an interview in the Scotsman group’s Scotland on Sunday newspaper, and widely quoted in today’s Telegraph newspaper claimed the attacks on his friend Sir Fred Goodwin, who Grossart maintains has been made a “scapegoat” for the banking crisis, believing Sir Fred has apparently suffered effects from the public attacks on his character and actions as former Chief of the Royal Bank of Scotland, as bad as the suffering of Jewish victims of the terrors of Nazi Germany.
Grossart shockingly compared the broken windows of Goodwin’s Edinburgh mansion to “Kristallnacht”, (the Night of Broken Glass), an anti-Jewish pogrom in Hitler’s Nazi Germany which took place in November 1938 where up to 30,000 Jews were arrested and placed in concentration camps while 91 victims were murdered, 267 synagogues were destroyed and thousands of Jewish homes and businesses ransacked.
An insult to victims of Nazi Germany’s Kristallnacht : World’s Worst Banker’s broken windows brought little sympathy after banking collapse (Click on image to watch video)
Sir Angus, who is in regular contact with Sir Fred, said:
“I think he’s very sad at the way he was victimised. Shades of Kristallnacht. Clearly he made a mistake as did most people in the financial world, most people in government, most people in regulatory organisations. “There is no doubt he was going to be criticised, but I think there is a deliberate attempt to polarise the criticism, to some extent, as a distraction, a scapegoat kind of thing.”
Sir Angus added:
“A lot of people, including those in government, were also involved in mistakes and they did not have bricks thrown through their windows.”
I have news for you, Sir Angus – a lot of people in regulatory organisations make a lot less mistakes than we are led to believe.
There are quite a few characters in those regulatory organisations who, rather than make mistakes, deliberately let those they regulate off the hook, even when some of them have caused deaths. In fact, some of those people in regulatory organisations have covered up deaths and benefitted financially from them, an issue I reported on earlier with regard to the Scottish legal profession, here : Suicides, illness, broken families and ruined clients reveal true cost of Law Society's Master Policy which 'allows solicitors to sleep at night'
This latest attempt to rehabilitate Sir Fred, who amazingly still retains his kighthood for services to banking yet those services led to the biggest banking collapse in the UK’s history, affecting millions of people across the globe in a financial crisis which has seen many lose their jobs, homes, livelihoods, is a mark of the determination of some around Goodwin to bring him back into public life.
Douglas Mill 4Former Law Society of Scotland Chief Executive Douglas Mill defended Sir Fred Goodwin after RBS banking collapse. Others around Sir Fred such as Douglas Mill, the ex Law Society Chief Executive who was himself brought down after the now infamous "Granny’s Grave” Holyrood confrontation with the Scottish Government’s Finance Chief John Swinney over corruption at the Law Society of Scotland, have publicly defended Goodwin, preferring to blame the lack of regulation of banks for the failures which led to the public vilification and attacks on Goodwin’s character which Sir Angus Grossart referred to.
“It wasnae him” : Former Law Society of Scotland Chief Douglas Mill defended Sir Fred Goodwin, blamed lack of regulation rather than ‘World’s Worst Banker’ (Click on image to watch video)
There seems to be no depths some people will go to rehabilitate or defend those who have brought our banks, and the country to its knees.
Comparing the broken windows of Sir Fred Goodwin’s mansion to the suffering of German Jews in the holocaust is an insult unrivalled so far in anything I have seen written about Sir Fred Goodwin and the banking crisis.
We should all beware those who would use such unrivalled evil from world history to rehabilitate those whose actions have caused so much calamity in our modern times, actions which spring from greed, and deserve no sympathy.
To view the original of this article CLICK HERE
Should we be surprised at a man like this making such obscene comments, I incline not to think so, minded of who he is - vile behaviour would seem to be something of a family trait.
Let us also consider: Wasn't this odious little man a director of RBS whilst running his own Bank, 'Noble Grossart'? I understand he also has an interest in Murray International and is believed to have been material in arranging a £1Bn. loan at incredibly preferential rates for his chum!
I also seem to recall that Angus Grossart was a senior director of The Skye Bridge scam, also his old chum Sir Ian Noble was one time Chairman of SBT and it was with Noble that Grossart founded his bank. Noble had the usefull advantage of ownership of the foreshore in the appropriate place to charge easment for the transit of vehicles on the said bridge.
We are also advised that there is more than something of a 'mystery' surrounding the present location of various works of art that were assetts of Nat West during the RBS takeover. Having seen a couple of the works of Gay Grossart and photos of others - to whom do they sell at the prices quoted, The RNIB pension fund!
We note she likens her efforts to Scottish Colourists - presumably children learning to coulour by numbers CLICK HERE
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ZOOM-Info. CLICK HERE
Married: Gay Grossart CLICK HERE
'e'Mail: Gay@GayGrossart.com
telephone: 07710 390 359
Gay & Angus are understood to live largely estranged lives with their own 'intimate friends', lives led from different homes. Sir Angus' tastes being understood to be more eclectic, but it is NOT the remit of this blog to speculate on sexual pecadillos or orientation.Daughter: Flure born C1984
"I work in one of the world's oldest art dealerships, London's Fine Art Society. I'm also pursuing work in fashion, fuelled by the buzz and energy of London life. I try to stay close to my roots with monthly visits back to Scotland."
