John Charles Boileau Grant

From the First World War to the end of the 20th century, medical students around the world studying anatomy became familiar with the name (and initials) of Dr. J. C. B. Grant, and most had cause to be grateful. His was to become one of the best known names in the world of anatomy teaching. Blessed with a gift for a clarity and simplicity in writing and in drawing, he simplified apparently hopelessly complex anatomical relationships making his textbooks best sellars. Grant’s method, Grant’s Atlas and his Handbook for dissectors between them ran to multiple editions,sold hundreds of thousands of copies and were translated into five different languages, helping generations of medical students and doctors throughout the world to learn anatomy.

J. C. B. Grant was born a son of the Scottish manse. His family were descended from Hugenot stock and he claimed descent from a Mayor of Paris. As a medical undergraduate in Edinburgh he won the anatomy medal in Professor Cunningham’s class and this early success decided him on a career in anatomy. He worked as a demonstrator firstly in Cunningham’s department and then in the University of Durham under Professor Howden, the editor of Gray’s Anatomy. This early introduction to the authors of the two major English language texts of anatomy set the stage for his own work as a writer of Anatomy texts. After a post in ENT surgery in Bristol, he took the Fellowship of the College and was posted on the outbreak of War as medical officer to the Grenadier Guards and thereafter to the Black Watch. During this War he won the Military Cross and bar for attending to wounded soldiers under fire. At the end of the War he emigrated to Canada, firstly to the Chair of Anatomy in the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Eleven years later he became Professor Anatomy at the University of Toronto. He was by any standards an outstanding teacher with encyclopaedic knowledge and a flare for illustration.

Grant’s “Method of anatomy, descriptive and deductive” enjoyed a huge success which ran to many editions and continued to be published after his death. Its success lay in the clarity of the text, which brought logic to the learning of the body’s structure and brought anatomy alive for medical students the world over. Grant’s Dissector and Grant’s Atlas of anatomy completed the trilogy. The Atlas continued to be published in succeeding editions even after his death. Between them they have run to over 30 editions and been translated into five languages. After retirement he was invited to be Visiting Professor to the University of California at Los Angeles actively teaching anatomy until his 84th year.

Many contemporaries regarded him as the best known anatomist in the world in the 20th century.