Sir William Grove
Theme : People

William Robert Grove was born at Swansea on 11th July, 1811. He was educated by private tutors before attending Swansea Grammar School. He then went up to Oxford ( B.A.1832, M.A.1835 ). In 1831 he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn to study law, being called to the Bar in 1835. Ill-health, however, prevented him from practising law at this time, instead he became a student of science. He invented Grove's Battery in 1839 claiming " to be the first to effect the actual combination of the gases oxygen and hydrogen by a feeble electric current ". His first experiments were conducted in the basement of the Royal Institution of South Wales (now Swansea Museum) of which he was a founder member. He enjoyed a distinguished career in the field of science, becoming a fellow of the Royal Society and being awarded their medal in 1847. He served as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science before returning to law. When the BAAS held their meetings at Swansea in 1848 William Grove was amongst their party to visit Penllergare to see John Dillwyn Llewelyn's experiments with a boat powered by an electric motor. He became a Q.C. in 1853, defending Dr.Palmer, the infamous Rugeley Poisoner, in 1856. William Grove was made a judge in 1871 and knighted in 1872. He was, like his father before him, Deputy Lieutenant of Glamorgan. He died in London in August 1896. Grove House and Grove Place stand testament to his importance in the city of his birth. The Grove family lived at The Laurels, on the site of Swansea's Central Police Station, as depicted in Thomas Baxter's watercolour of 'The Willows and Mount Pleasant'

This Item is located at Swansea Museum in the Cabinet of Curiosities