The Chief
Grant Guthrie Davidson, 3rd of Davidston ca 2015
Grant’s Chapter – The current Chief is Grant Guthrie Davidson, 3rd of Davidston2, Chief of the Name and Arms of Clan Davidson. Grant became Chief following the death of his father.
Grant was born in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand in 1959. Grant was a keen athlete in his early years, excelling in rugby, tennis and, to a somewhat lesser extent, golfing. But his true love, blue water sailing, would dominate his life for the next 34 years, first as a crewman on ocean-going blue water yachts, then in various support roles such as a construction manager of shore support facilities and the logistics manager for several different America’s Cup racing teams.
During his 30+ year career in the international blue-water racing business (and it IS a business, a very high-dollar business), Grant lived dozens of places in a large number of countries around the world… “living the dream” as he puts it so well.
He met Brenda Delwyn Opperman, his future bride, in 1979 and, as things turned out, they embarked on a 10 year courtship, sailing the wet surfaces of the earth as members of various blue-water yachting crews. They were married in 1990 and settled in San Diego, USA, where their daughter, Alexandra Louise, was born. After that, it was back to sea again, moving every several years to a new port in a new country, following the international yacht racing circuit. Their 2nd daughter, Olivia Sarah, was born in Brisbane Australia, in 1994.
Still “living the dream”, Grant and Brenda settled in Valencia, Spain, where they managed to stay for 6 years. After more world travelling, Grant, Brenda and their two daughters finally returned home to New Zealand in 2013, this time to stay. They now reside in Takapuna, very close to where his parents, Jock and Mary, lived during Grant’s younger years. He is employed as a construction site manager.
During his address to the assemblage at his inauguration as Chief, held in Christchurch, New Zealand in May 2015, Grant had these words in his address of acceptance of the Chiefship:
“I have waited for and dreaded the coming of this day since 1997 when both my brother Jeff and I gave Jock the thumbs up, assuring him that if he took up the challenge of being a “Chief” we would carry the mantle when he “retired”.
Wow! What a great following Clan Davidson has achieved in lands the world over.
This is due in many ways to my father’s patience, his inquisitive nature and his love of reading books and journals, and correspondence with people from all over the world.
Jock and Clan Davidson, after a relatively slow start, emerged out of the shadows into the “limelight” being enthusiastically promoted throughout NZ and across the world by people such as are gathered here today. The letters and correspondence, which have been kept by Jock over the last 18 years, will be handed to the Clan Society in New Zealand for safe keeping and, hopefully, will be added to during my tenure of this Chiefship.
I will carry this cromach, wear the bonnet and feathers, and with our motto and coat of arms, do my best to guide our Clan through the next 20-30 years.
I and Clan Davidson need all your support , guidance, expertise, and most of all enthusiasm, to enjoy and preserve our Clan’s heritage, as well as invoking some more modern aspects of that heritage, all over New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the USA and all the other places in the world where Clan Davidson is known and respected.”
For a PDF file of the pedigree chart for the “Modern” Chiefs of the Clan click Davidsons of Tulloch & Davidston Family Tree
Note
The reference to Davidston first appears in the 1906 Grant of Arms to Duncan Davidson, VI of Tulloch. The location of this well-known farm property is a few miles to the southwest of Cromarty on the Black Isle. This reference has been repeated in the subsequent armorial registrations in the late 1990s. The Clan Davidson Association — U.K. has not yet been able to confirm any specific historic link between the chiefly family and this property, although they have for some of the neighboring properties. The research into the Cromarty area origins of the chiefly family is ongoing.