Henry Heath "Harry" Glover was an English artist who emigrated to South Australia in 1849. He is noted for producing what may have been the first lithographs in the young colony. His elder son Henry Heath Glover Jr. had a career as artist and lithographer in Melbourne, Sydney, and Christchurch, New Zealand.
History
Henry Heath was born in Lambeth, London, on 14 July 1801, the son of William and Grace Heath. On 25 July 1827, he married Mary Ann Swinchatt at St Mary's Church, Lambeth. Mary died on 22 June 1846 in Kennington. Henry and his two sons, Henry Jr and Sydney, departed England on 29 January 1849 on board the "Calcutta", arriving in Adelaide, South Australia, on 23 June 1849. Henry changed his name to Henry Heath "Harry" Glover. He died in Adelaide on 2 March 1858. In the short time he spent in Australia, he distinguished himself as an artist and lithographer credited with recording some of the earliest depictions of colonial era South Australia. Henry's son, now known as Henry Heath "Harry" Glover Jr., also distinguished himself as an artist and lithographer in Australia. They are represented in various collections throughout Australia, including the State Library of South Australia, the National Library of Australia in Canberra, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the State Library of New South Wales, and the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Henry was an established artist, illustrator, lithographer and caricaturist in England, prior to leaving for Australia. There is a substantial collection of his work in the National Portrait Gallery, London, bequeathed by Sir Edward Dillon Lott du Cann. Henry took over the licence of the Stag Inn, corner of Rundle Street and East Terrace, on December 1849. On the evening of Sunday 26 October 1851 a brawl broke out in the "Stag" between a bootmaker named Charles Grosse and a group of Irishmen, among them John Egan and John O'Dea. Glover and his sons ejected the Irishmen, but were assaulted with stones: Glover had his jaw broken and was rendered insensible. Sydney Glover fired a pistol, killing O'Dea. A trial for manslaughter failed to convict him. He relinquished his hotel licence in December 1851; He suffered ill-health for a number of years and died at his home on North Terrace, Adelaide.
Works
The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra has his portrait of William Baker Ashton, first governor of the Adelaide Gaol, produced c. 1849.
The State Library has several lithographs depicting William Baker Ashton and staff members of Adelaide Gaol; the same institution where his sons were incarcerated while awaiting trial in 1851.
Glover and his wife, née Gerrard, had two sons, who arrived in Adelaide on Calcutta in 1849:
Henry Heath Glover Jr. was also a lithographic artist. He left for the goldfields in the early 1850s and married Johanna Farrell at Tamworth, New South Wales around 1856; two young children died of scarlatina in 1860, when living at Carlton, Victoria. On 10 March 1873, in St Leonards, New South Wales, he married Jane Elizabeth Clift. They had five children: George, Arthur, Ann, Maud and Caroline. He had a significant career as an artist – see main article.
