On arriving home on Friday morning after a search for the missing schooners in the S.S. Beothic, the following message was awaiting me from the Rev. Garland Burton of Montreal, “Father passed peacefully away Sunday at Greenspond, please write obituary for Daily News.” The person in question is the late Robert Granter of Greenspond. The request that comes to me from his adopted son (the Rev. Garland Burton) is due no doubt to the fact that he knew how very intimate we were all through life. Although he was much older than I am, I was quite young when we became acquainted, and an intimacy grew up between us equal to that of David and Jonathan.
In his boyhood days education was not sought after as it is today, and unfortunately for him his school days were few judging from what he accomplished from his limited store of learning. Had he received a good education he would no doubt have been heard from in the councils of his country. When quite young he went to sea and for some years was foreign voyaging and during his spare time learned to read and write and improved himself in navigation. And after returning from the foreign service [he] went navigator with the late Capt. William Knee in the S.S. Kite and Falcon. Unlike most young men who go to sea, he seemed to be proof against all the vices of that life, and came back much improved in every way. He was a great reader and gained a great knowledge of English history and had a marvelous memory to retain what he read. He was a most exemplary character, honest, truthful and generous even to a fault; kind in his manner and disposition and always went by the name of Bobby Granter. I don’t think he had an enemy in the world. Very late in life he married a Miss Butler of Greenspond. They had no issue. The Rev. Garland Burton who calls him father was his sister’s son. When she died they adopted him in their family and there is no doubt he was well cared for. They were determined that he would get a good education and under the influence of such guardians it is little wonder that he is now filling the position that he is in charge of one of the United Churches of Canada near Montreal. His wife predeceased him about two years ago. He has another brother, Eli, living in Montreal and Mrs. Joseph Knee of Valleyfield is, I think, his own surviving sister. He was eighty-eight years old when he died, thus reaching eighteen years over the allotted span…