Charles Glover, first lord mayor of Adelaide (1923-25, 1930-33), a benefactor, in business, and a book collector
Adelaide lord mayor Charles Glover (1923-25 and 1930-33) had ex officio positions on civic bodies and he was active in many other charitable, philanthropic, public utility, cultural and sporting bodies.
Image courtesy Sate Library of Sout Australia
Adelaide’s first lord mayor Charles Richmond John Glover initiated and donated, in 1919, part of the cost for the War Memorial Drive on the Torrens Lake northern banks and he presented three children's playgrounds to the city.
Besides a public benefactor, Glover was a businessman and book collector. He was born in 1870 at Richmond, Surrey, England, while his parents were holidaying in Britain. The parents, Charles and Hannah, had migrated to Adelaide in the 1850s. They took over the Plough & Harrow Hotel in Rundle Street, Adelaide. Their son Charles was educated at Prince Alfred College in 1882-87 and qualified as a pharmaceutical chemist with F. H. Faulding & Co.
For six years from 1898, he was a sharebroker on the Adelaide Stock Exchange. In 1900, at St John's Church, Adelaide, he married Elizabeth Maude Hannam. In 1903, the Plough & Harrow (later Richmond) Hotel was transferred to him and, on his mother's death in 1913, he inherited half her estate of £32,000.
Glover had begun his career on Adelaide City Council in 1906 and was an alderman (1909-17) when he became mayor. In 1919, he became Adelaide's first lord mayor in 1923-25 and 1930-33. As mayor, he saw a geometric village become a consciously beautiful city.
Glover held ex officio positions on many civic bodies including Adelaide Hospital board of management, Metropolitan County board, Botanic Garden board and the Municipal Tramways Trust. He was active in many other charitable, philanthropic, public utility, cultural and sporting bodies. He was a patron of many local sporting clubs. His business positions included chairman of directors of the Imperial Building Society and director of the Bank of Adelaide, United Insurance Co. and South Australian Gas Co.
Glover visited England in 1891, 1904, 1921 and 1933. He published “A brief history of the Church of St John the Evangelist, Adelaide, 1839-1909” in the church paper and A History of the First Fifty Years of Freemasonry in South Australia, 1834-84 (1916). After being deputy, in 1909, he became grand secretary of the Grand Lodge, until 1936. After buying St Andrews mansion in North Adelaide in 1914, Glover developed his library and ethnological collection.
Between 1912 and 1934, he specialised in books on Australasia and the South Sea, keeping thorough records of purchases from Australian booksellers and overseas trips. He had his own bookplate. Most of his library, one of the major Australian collections, was sold at auction in Melbourne in 1970. Many of his Aboriginal artefacts had originally been collected by Charles Chewings between Alice Springs and Newcastle Waters, and by George Aiston, protector of Aboriginal people.
Glover was a meticulous hoarder of receipts, invitations, menus and ephemera. He maintained detailed inventories of his furniture, pictures and other possessions.
His son John also served as Adelaide lord mayor in 1960-63.