Born in Cobh (then Queenstown) County Cork, Republic of Ireland, the artist had a residential address there in 1888 for submissions to exhibitions. Prior to that he had studied at the Westminster School of Art. In 1888,  the Manchester City Art Gallery reported an address for McIver Grierson (sic) in Heamoor, Penzance.  Wood associates him with the Newlyn painters directly, and states that he lived there. In 1887 he married a widow, Annie Elizabeth North (nee Garnett) in Madron, near Newlyn. In August 1888 their daughter was born at Rose Cottage, Heamoor, Penzance.

At the 1891 Census the family was living at Brondesbury Road, Willesden, Middlesex. By 1894 his address was given as Haverstock Hill, London where he continued to exhibit widely until 1902 when he was sending-in from County Sligo, Ireland. By 1910 he was back in London and moved around the City from North to West London. Meantime he became a member of both the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (RI) and the Pastel Society (PS). He died at the age of 76, on 25 September 1939, in Hillingdon, London (GRO).