Wednesday, 15 September 2010

William Robert Grove QC

Died 1 August 1896 Lawyer, Judge and Physical Scientist.Physics, Chemistry Patent Law Criminal Law, Royal Institution, Royal Society, Privy Council Known for Conservation of energy, Invention of the Fuel Cell, defending William Palmer.
 
Born in Swansea in 1811, Grove was the only child of John, (a magistrate and deputy lieutenant of Glamorgan), and his wife, Anne, née Bevan.  At the Royal Institution, Grove met Emma Maria Powles (died 1879) and married her in 1837.  In 1839, Grove developed a novel form of electric cell, the Grove Cell, the precursor of the fuel cell which powers the Honda FCX Clarity
 
In the 1840s, Grove collaborated with Gassiot at the London Institution on photography. From 1846, Grove reduced his scientific work in favour of law, to pay for his young family. He became a QC in 1853. 

Groves's daughter Imogen Emily (died 1886) married William Edward Hall in 1866. His daughter Anna married Herbert Augustus Hills (1837–1907) and was mother to Edmond Herbert Grove-Hills ("Colonel Rivers"), and John Waller Hills.

The lunar crater “GROVE” is named for him.
 
The current and annual Grove Fuel Cell Symposium and Exhibition is organised by Elsevier.

[Information provided by Paul Nicholls-Jones (mail: paulnichollsjones@gmail.com) who is backing the campaign
for Swansea City to celebrate one of her world famous sons on his bicentenary next July 2011.]

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