James Grierson

James qualified as a Solicitor, and practiced in Lerwick. In keeping with what had by then become a family tradition, he took a very active role in public affairs from a relatively early age. Before the age of thirty he had been elected on to the Zetland County Council and in to the role of Vice Convener. He was a member of almost all of the Council Committees, and the Chairman of most of them. He was also a Commissioner of Supply, a member of the County Road Board, and Chairman of the Visiting Board of Lerwick Prison.

In a broader sphere he was also a leading advocate of temperance and Chief of the local Rechabite movement, taking an active role in promoting and encouraging these not only in Lerwick but all over Shetland.

Upon the death of his father Andrew, the fifth Laird of the Grierson of Quendale family estate, on April 12th 1896, James became his successor, the sixth and final Laird of the family estate. The sale, by James of what today is Quendale Farm to George Leslie around 1900 brought the final chapter of the family estate to a close.

It may be of interest to note that George Leslie (grandfather of George WB Leslie), the purchaser, was, as a child of about nine years old, along with the rest of his family, one of the evictees from one of the twenty seven crofts at and around Garth, cleared by James's father Andrew, only around twenty six years previously.

James Cullen Grierson's eldest child, John Henry Clifford Grierson, (b. October 28th 1896) was a Lieutenant with the 8/10th Gordon Highlanders and was killed in action at Ypres, Flanders, Belgium on July 31st 1917.

His death in Helensdale, Lerwick, was the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was scheduled to face a military discipline for drinking according to procurator fiscal records released in 2015.