Education and Early Career
The son of William Edward Harvey Grylls O.B.E., of Winterbourne Zelston House, Blandford, Dorset, a Brigadier in the 15th/19th King's Royal Hussars of a family that can trace back to seventeenth century Cornwall, he was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. His eyesight was not good enough for the Navy, so he joined the Royal Marines, and saw active service, leaving in 1955, and studying Spanish at the University of Madrid.
He turned his hand to business, setting up a wine importing firm called the Costa Brava Company. His description of some of his products as "Spanish champagne" provoked the ire of both the makers of genuine champagne and its London importers; he was unsuccessfully prosecuted for trading under a false description, but they won a civil writ against him for "passing off", i.e. misrepresenting his goods by using someone else's trademark.
From 1959 he served as a councillor on St. Pancras Borough Council, and was elected to the Greater London Council for the Cities of London and Westminster from 1967-70.
Read more about this topic: Michael Grylls
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