Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Glover, John Hawley
GLOVER, Sir JOHN HAWLEY (1829–1885), captain in the navy, administrator of Lagos, and governor of Newfoundland, son of the Rev. John Glover, English chaplain at Cologne, entered the navy in 1841 on board the Queen, flagship of Sir Edward Owen in the Mediterranean, and, after eight years' junior service, passed his examination in April 1849. On 24 Oct. 1851, while serving on board the Penelope on the west coast of Africa, he was promoted to be lieutenant, and in May 1852 was appointed to the Royalist in the East Indies. From her he was moved to the Sphinx, and, in command of her boats, took part in the disastrous affair at Donabew in Burmah on 4 Feb. 1853 [see Loch, Granville Gower], where he was severely wounded, a ball entering under the right eye and passing out at the ear. In the summer he returned to England, and in October was appointed to the Royal George, from which he was moved in February 1854 to be first lieutenant of the Rosamond paddle-sloop in the Baltic. From 1855 to 1857 he had command of the Otter, a small steamer, and then joined the expedition to the Niger, with Dr. William Balfour Baikie [q. v.] In 1861 he returned to England and was appointed to the Aboukir, but was almost immediately moved into the Arrogant, going out as flagship on the west coast, where for the next year he commanded the Arrogant's tender Handy, a small gunboat. On 24 Nov. 1862 he was advanced to commander's rank, and his service at sea came to an end.
On 21 April 1863 he was appointed administrator of the government of Lagos; in May 1864 became colonial secretary in the same place; and was from February 1866 till 1872 again administrator. While holding that office, especially in 1870, he was actively engaged in suppressing the marauding incursions of the Ashantees in the neighbourhood of the river Volta. When, in 1873, war with Ashantee became imminent, Glover, who was at the time in England, volunteered for special service, representing that his influence with the natives would probably be useful. He was sent out with vague instructions to raise a native army among the tribes to the east of the British territory and to act as seemed best, subject to the general control of Sir Garnet (now Lord) Wolseley, who went out as commander-in-chief and governor of the Gold Coast. He arrived at Cape Coast in the early days of September, and, taking thence some three hundred Houssas, already trained to arms, pushed on to Accra, where, in the course of a few weeks, he gathered together a native force of from sixteen to twenty thousand men. He soon found, however, that they were almost useless. They stood in terror of the Ashantees, and refused to advance. Glover proposed to employ them in the first instance in some desultory raids, till, flushed with victory, their unwillingness would be overcome; but Wolseley directed him to advance into the Ashantee country, simultaneously with the main attack, and with such force as he could command. On 15 Jan. 1874, with not more than eight hundred Houssas, Glover crossed the Prah, threatened the left flank of the Ashantees, and thus eased the work of the main force under Wolseley. He was never seriously engaged, though there was occasional skirmishing, but the villages in his line of march were captured or burnt, and he overcame with remarkable skill the great difficulty of transporting his guns and ammunition. His success encouraged the unwilling tribes to come up, and he eventually approached Coomassie with a force of something like five thousand men.
Peace was concluded on 14 Feb. 1874, and Glover's distinguished and difficult service was rewarded by the thanks of both houses of parliament, by his being nominated (8 May) a G.C.M.G., and appointed in the following year governor of Newfoundland. In 1877 he was put on the retired list of the navy with the rank of captain, but continued at Newfoundland till 1881, when he was transferred to the governorship of the Leeward Islands. In 1883 he was moved back to Newfoundland. He died in London on 30 Sept. 1885. He married in 1876 Elizabeth Rosetta, eldest daughter of Mr. J. Butler Scott of Anne's Grove Abbey, Mountrath, Queen's County.
[Times, 2 Oct. 1885; Annual Register, 1885, p. 181; Illustrated London News, 25 April, 1874, with a very indifferent portrait; Times bulletin, 1853; Brackenbury's Ashanti War; Royal Navy List.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.137
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 4 | i | 4 | Glover, Sir John H.: for Rev. John Glover, read Rev. Frederic Robert Augustus Glover |