Alexander Falconer Grant was born on 1 February 1926 in Sydney, Australia. His father, Chesborough Grant, was a public servant and his mother, Henrietta, née Leary, a nursing sister. Both his brothers became surgeons and both were awarded the OBE. He attended North Sydney Boys' High School and Sydney University where he gained his MB BS in 1948. He was a Group Captain in the Reserve Medical Service of the Royal Australian Air Force. In 1956 he joined the staff of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney as a cardiothoracic surgeon. The following year he became assistant honorary cardiothoracic surgeon and in 1959 honorary cardiothoracic surgeon. In 1986, the year he retired, he became consultant cardiothoracic surgeon. He married Joan Alice Degotardi, also a Sydney medical graduate, on 7 January 1950. They had two sons, Alexander who became staff urologist at Newcastle Hospital, and Simon who became a consultant physician at Bowral Hospital; their daughters, Fiona and Annabel, trained as nurses. In his youth Grant was a keen rugby player and was awarded his university blue. Later he took up golf and became the captain of the Avondale Golf Club. He is thought to have died sometime in 1990.