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John Grove (1780–1847) was Portreeve of Swansea in 1815-16 and 1828-29 and Mayor 1838-39, and a J.P.. He Married Anne Bevan in 1810 and had one son and two daughters. The daughter were Mary Anne (1813–1836) and Emma (b.1818).
John and Anne's son, The Rt.Hon. Sir William Robert Grove, QC, FRS, FRSE was a Swansea-born lawyer, judge and physical scientist. He was the son of John Grove, a magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of Glamorgan, and Anne née Bevan, and was educated privately before reading Classics at Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1835 he was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn, but in the same year he also joined the Royal Institution, a leading scientific and educational society. He was a founding member of the Swansea Literary and Philosophical Society which became the Royal Institution of South Wales in 1838 and still functions today. The RISW built and still supports Swansea Museum, although the museum itself is now run by Swansea Council.
Sir William played a significant part in Victorian scientific endeavours, inventing an electric cell called the Grove cell, the first fuel cell, and one of the first incandescent electric lights, later to be perfected by Thomas Edison. He was also involved in early photography and the Daguerreotype, and, in his 1846 book On the correlation of physical forces anticipated the theory of the conservation of energy. The lunar crater "Grove" is named after him.
From 1846 William began to concentrate more on his legal career. He became a QC in 1853, was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Please in 1872 and was appointed to the Queen's Bench in 1880. He was knighted in 1872 and became a Privy Councillor in 1887.
Sir William died at his home in Harley Street, London, on 1st August 1896. His wife (whom he met in Swansea) pre-deceased him as did four of his seven children. His son was Maj-Gen Sir Coleridge Grove (1839-1920).
