Jimmy Grant’s Denison Smock

Posted on 04 Apr 2025
09 min read

By Tommy Simpson

Special thanks to Stuart McLaren for some of the photos

***_{Tommy Simpson at the unveiling of the Aldershot Bombing Memorial on the 50th anniversary of the atrocity in June 1972}***

Editorial Foreword

Tommy Simpson, who is well-known for his tireless commemorative work with the Airborne Forces Memorial Fund, contributed this article to Hermes. It reminds us that while Britain is not in the best of places at the moment, she is not as broken as some commentators would have us believe and that we have some fantastic young people coming of age.

Tommy Simpson takes up the story…

Sergeant Jimmy Grant served with 3 PARA from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. He finished his time with The Parachute Regiment with the Junior Parachute Company in Browning and Malta Barracks in Aldershot. Jimmy Grant was a well-respected and liked man.

Jimmy suffered a terrible personal loss when his wife Margaret was amongst several civilians murdered by Irish Republican terrorists who placed a car bomb outside the 16th Parachute Brigade Officers Mess in Aldershot on February 22nd 1972.

Jimmy died in Spain in 2010. A few years ago, we were given Jimmy’s Denison smock to auction off as part of the fund-raising initiative for the Colchester Airborne Statue project, which is being run by the Aldershot and Colchester branches of the PRA.

The buyer had been a friend of Jimmy Grant. He did not want to see the smock bought by a militaria dealer so he offered £1,000 if we would stop the auction. He then asked me to keep Jimmy Grant’s smock for future presentation to a worthy recipient.

We found a worthy recipient in the shape of young James Grant, who is a Para Cadet with the Aldershot Combined Cadet Force. James Grant is the grandson of Jimmy and Margaret Grant and is also known as Jimmy.

James attended the 53rd anniversary of the IRA atrocity that killed the grandmother he never knew and as soon as I saw him parading so proudly in his cadet uniform, the badge of The Parachute Regiment gleaming on his beret, I knew the smock had to go to him

***_{Army Cadet James Grant stands to attention in front of his grandmother Margaret Grant’s name on the Aldershot Bombing Memorial}***

And so, Sgt Jimmy Grant’s Denison smock was handed over to his grandson Jimmy Grant during a ceremony in the Trafalgar Inn in Aldershot on March 16th 2025. Young Jimmy Grant was clearly very moved and so proud receive this piece of his family’s history.

I gave a short talk on the smock’s history and then handed over to Aldershot PRA Secretary Stuart McLaren, who had known young James Grant when he was Combined Cadet Force officer.