Minister and provost of Edinburgh. An appreciation
Born: December 5, 1935;
Died: June 10, 2018
REV Dr George Grubb, who has died aged 82, was a former Lord Provost of Edinburgh and parish minister at Craigsbank Church in Corstorphine who once wrote that his life in the city had been dominated by four buildings and two bridges. The buildings were Edinburgh Castle, the old Royal High School, Craigsbank Parish Church and Edinburgh City Chambers. The two bridges were the rail and road bridges over the Forth.
His early life was spent in the Blackhall and Marchmont areas of Edinburgh with his parents and brother Douglas. His first school was James Gillespie’s Primary School and later he attended the Royal High School. At school he played rugby but his sporting successes came in running, winning the Scottish Schools and Scottish junior titles in the half mile. Into his 70s he was still a fine runner.
He was involved in Sunday School and Youth Fellowship in Marchmont and in his teenage years first felt a call to ministry. He saw the convener of the Church of Scotland’s Training for the Ministry Committee and was advised he needed to increase his academic qualifications – and that he should do that after national service. That took him first to training in Aldershot and then to Deepcut Camp and then Kineton where he served as an ammunitions clerk. It was during national service that he was introduced to Methodism and studied at Wesley College in Leeds. Service as a Methodist minister was in the Wakefield Circuit. George often said he had not chosen Methodism but rather that Methodism had chosen him.
The services called and George served as an RAF padre in Germany and Cyprus. And then what he called “the exile years” were over and he returned to Scotland and entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland. He served as assistant minister in Craigsbank for a year and then in 1971 was called to be minister. He retired from there in 2001.
He was an innovator, a man of ideas. He started a group where residents from nearby Gogarburn Hospital came for fellowship and fun – well, sometimes fun! He also began a group for recovering victims of strokes. And Craigsbank had one of the early mothers and toddlers groups. He was instrumental in getting a new church building in the expanding East Craigs area. George became involved in the life of Edinburgh Presbytery and he was a frequent contributor to debates at the General Assembly. I was never sure whether George sought controversy or whether controversy sought George. He served as moderator of Edinburgh Presbytery from 1993 – 1994.
George had enormous pastoral skills, having that enviable ability to relate to people and put them at ease. He himself recognised that pastoral ministry was his strength, with preaching and administrative duties taking a secondary place.
As years went by George became interested in politics and was “converted” to the Lib Dems by Paddy Ashdown. He stood for election as a councillor and we were all amazed when he was elected. In 2007 he was elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh and served with distinction. Family life was central to him. He and Elizabeth were married for nearly 58 years. Their son Rhoderick gave them two grandchildren and daughter Mhairi gave them four.
ANN INGLIS
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here