In 1939, he escaped the Holocaust via Kindertransport with his brothers Julian and Walter, leaving his mother to join his father who had already fled to England.

[2] He officially changed his name in 1949 to John Ashley Soames Grenville upon receiving British citizenship.

He studied under Sir Charles Webster and received a First Class Honours Degree in History in 1951 and a PhD, for which he was awarded the Hutchinson Medal, in 1953.

His final book, based in part on his own experiences, The Jews and Germans of Hamburg: The Destruction of a Civilization 1790-1945, was published shortly after.

Patricia, his brother Walter, his sons, George, Edward, and Murray, and his daughters, Claire and Annabelle, survived him.

John A. S. Grenville PhD Studentship in Modern Jewish History and Culture awarded by the Leo Baeck Institute.