Lionel Jermyn Grigson was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,"Lionel Jermyn Grigson", Gritquoy Forum. to poet and critic Geoffrey Grigson (1905–85) and his second wife Berta Emma KunertBiography of Geoffrey Grigson at PoemHunter.com. (1916–2001).Julian Symons, "Grigson, Geoffrey Edward Harvey (1905–1985)", rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009. Retrieved 1 February 2015. Named after one of his father's brothers who was killed aged 19 in World War I,"Lionel Henry Shuckforth Grigson, Lives of the First World War"Jeremy Archer, "One Family's Sacrifice - The Story of the Seven Sons of Canon and Mrs William Shuckforth Grigson", The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester, Dorset."Grigson, Lionel Henry Shuckforth - Second Lieutenant, 3rd Bn. attd. 1st Bn., Devonshire Regiment", who died on 9 May 1917 aged 19. Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. Commonwealth War Graves Commission."New prize in mathematics", New College News (Oxford University), No. 31, November 2014, p. 4. Lionel was educated at Dartington Hall SchoolDavid Gribble, A Parents' Guide to Progressive Education, Dorling Kindersley, 1985, p. 17. and at King's College, Cambridge (where he contributed writings on jazz to the university magazine GrantaDave Gelly, "On the Other Hand", Jazz Journal, Vol. 65, No. 8, August 2012, p. 8. under the editorship of Alexis Lykiard).Alexis Lykiard, "Granta Days" , nthposition.com, September 2009. Grigson's first wife was the publisher Margaret Busby, co-founder of Allison & Busby.Margaret Busby, "Clive Allison obituary", The Guardian, 3 August 2011.Aida Edemariam, "Margaret Busby: how Britain's first black female publisher revolutionised literature – and never gave up", The Guardian, 22 October 2020.
