Quote Originally Posted by Alan de Enfield View Post
No - the niece of the long standing employee.

A long-standing employee approached his niece, Elizabeth Goldsmith and her husband Simon
This is one of those aspects of grammar that trips up enough people these days that one cannot assume much. The reference to "the founder's great grandson" implies that he had some further role and that it was his niece that was approached; a logical interpretation given that no mention is made of the said "long-standing employee" in fact having taken over the business in the 1970s. Nor would there be any apparent reason to recount his having "approached his niece" when it could simply be said that his niece and her husband had taken over the business. So what was grammatically correct was also lacking in clarity.

And hence my question.