Captain John Hawley Glover

A carte-de-visite portrait of Captain (later Sir) John Hawley Glover (1829-1885), captain in the British Royal Navy, veteran of the Ashanti Campaign and colonial administrator.

Glover entered the service in 1841 and passed his examination as lieutenant in 1849, but did not receive a commission till May 1851. He served in various stations, and was wounded severely in an action with the Burmese at Donabew (4 February 1853). But his reputation was not gained at sea and as a naval officer, but on shore and as an administrative official in the colonies. During his years of service as lieutenant in the navy he had had considerable experience of the coast of Africa, and had taken part in the expedition of Dr William Balfour Baikie up the Niger. On 21 April 1863 he was appointed administrator of the government of Lagos, and in that capacity, or as colonial secretary, he remained there till 1872.

During this period he had been much employed in repelling the marauding incursions of the Ashantis. When the Ashanti war broke out in 1873, Captain Glover undertook the hazardous and doubtful task of organizing the native people, whom hatred of the Ashantis might be expected to make favourable to the British authorities. His services were accepted, and in September 1873 he landed at Cape Coast, and, after forming a small trustworthy force of Hausa, marched to Accra. His influence sufficed to gather a large native force, but neither he nor anybody else could overcome their abject terror of the ferocious Ashantis to the extent of making them fight.

In January 1874 Captain Glover was able to render some assistance in the taking of Kumasi, but it was at the head of a Hausa force. His services were acknowledged by the thanks of parliament and by his creation as GCMG. In 1875 he was appointed governor of Newfoundland, a post he held until 1881, when he was transferred to the Leeward Islands. He returned to Newfoundland in 1883, and died in London on 30 September 1885. Lady Glover's Life of her husband appeared in 1897.

Photographed by Maull and Co of London.