was a member of the royal commission appointed on 1 Sept. 1864 to inquire into the law of patents. On the transference of Sir Robert Collier [q. v.] from the court of common pleas to the judicial committee of the privy council, Grove was appointed to the vacant judgeship, invested with the coif (30 Nov. 1871), and knighted (27 Feb. 1872). The consolidation of the courts effected by the Judicature Acts of 1873 and 1875 gave him the status of justice of the high court, and the order in council of 16 Dec. 1880 transferred him to the queen's bench division. He proved an efficient judge, but, as he was not specially assigned to the hearing of patent cases, it may be doubted whether his services to suitors were such as to compensate for his withdrawal from scientific investigation. He retired from the bench in September 1887, and was sworn of the privy council (28 Nov.) On his release from official duty, Grove returned to his scientific studies with unabated zest (cf. his interesting lecture 'On Antagonism; or, the Conflict of the various Forces by which the Equilibrium of Nature is maintained,' delivered on 20 Feb. 1888 at the Royal Institution; Proceedings, vol. xii.) He was, however, no exception to the rule that a philosopher's best work is done comparatively early. He died, after a slow decline, at his residence, 115 Harley Street, London, on 1 Aug. 1896.
Grove married, on 27 May 1837, Emma Maria (d. 1879), daughter of John Diston Powles of Summit House, Middlesex, by whom he left issue; a daughter married William Edward Hall [q. v. Suppl.]
Grove was an original member of the Chemical Society, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei of Rome, and a knight of the Brazilian order of the Rose.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1714-1886. and Men at the Bar; Lincoln's Inn Records; List of the Royal Soc. 1842; List of Members of the Royal Institution, 1856; Phil. Trans. 1847 , Memoirs of the Chemical Society, vol. i. ad fin.; Journ. of the Chemical Society, xvi. 263; Weld's History of the Royal Society, p. 575; Parl. Papers (H.C.), 1864, c. 3419; Burke's Peerage, 1895; Men of the Time, 1884; Men and Women of the Time, 1891; Pump Court, May 1885; Times, 3 Aug. 1896; Athenæum, 8 Aug. 1896; Nature, 27 Aug. 1896; Ann. Reg. 1896, ii. 170; Law Times, 8 Aug. 1896; Law Journ. 15 Aug. 1896; Solicitor's Journ. 8 Aug. 1896; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
GROVER, JOHN WILLIAM (1836–1892), civil engineer, born on 20 April 1836, was the only son of the Rev. Henry Montague Grover of Boveney Court, Burnham, Buckinghamshire, and rector of Hitcham, Buckinghamshire. He was educated at Marlborough College and in Germany, and then became a pupil of Sir Charles Fox [q. v.]; at the close of his pupilage he entered the employ of Sir John Fowler [q. v. Suppl.], and was engaged in carrying out preliminary surveys for railways in Portugal and Spain. He was next appointed a draughtsman in the office of works of the science and art department, and eventually became head of the engineering and constructive branch. Among the works superintended by him while he held this post were the north and south courts of the South Kensington Museum, and the conservatory of the Royal Horticultural Society.
In January 1862 Grover set up in business as a consulting engineer at Westminster, and during the next eleven years he designed and carried out several important engineering works, mainly in connection with railways. One of his works, an iron pier on the coast of Somersetshire, was described in a paper he read before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1871, 'Description of a wrought-iron Pier at Clevedon, Somerset' (Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers, xxxii. 130). He also assisted Major-general Walter Scott, R.E., in the design of the Royal Albert Hall.
In 1873 he visited Venezuela to make surveys for the mountain line from La Guaira to Caracas, and he also made a hydrographical survey of the coast near La Guaira for the proposed harbour works.
On his return to England from Venezuela he gave up railway work and turned his attention to waterworks. He designed and was responsible for several systems in the chalk districts round London. Among others may be mentioned the water supply for the districts of Newbury, Wokingham, Leatherhead, and Rickmansworth. His method of dealing with the problem of supplying these towns was described in a communication submitted to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1887, entitled 'Chalk Water Springs in the London Basin' (Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers, xc. 1).
Of the patents taken out by Grover perhaps the most important was that for his so-called 'spring washer,' used to prevent the slacking of permanent-way fish bolts on railway lines; these washers have been very extensively used in all parts of the world.
He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1867, and was also a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a vice-president of the British Archæological Association. In connection with his antiquarian pursuits he was instrumental in
