Hebburn's Hawthorn Leslies built the Royston Grange in 1959, launching her on 23 June and completing her that December.
After the tragedy in May 1972 her owners, Houlder Line flew 130 relatives of the 74 victims to Uruguay for a mass funeral of the victims. On 20 May 1972 their remains, mostly little more than ashes and charred bones, were buried in six urns in two communal graves in The British Cemetery Montevideo.

The Royston Grange was initially towed to Montevideo, The recovery of her smouldering hull by the Uruguayan Navy led to confrontation with the Argentine patrol boats ARA King and ARA Murature, which had been ordered to tow the wreck to Buenos Aires.This was one of a series of maritime incidents that prompted the governments of Argentina and Uruguay to negotiate a new treaty on their maritime frontier, which was concluded the following year.
In March 1974, Royston Grange was towed to Barcelona where her scrapping began on 20 May 1979