Thomas blake glover biography

Thomas blake glover biography: Glover was born the son

He also had a residence in the Shiba Park area of Tokyo. The site of the house where Glover is thought to have been born in Fraserburgh was levelled after a bomb strike during World War IIalthough a blue plaque marks the site of his birth. A display in Fraserburgh Heritage Centre commemorates this link. Braehead House in Aberdeen now known as Glover House was purchased by the Glover family in and Thomas Blake's parents lived there until their deaths.

The house was purchased by Mitsubishi in and gifted to Grampian Regional Council. The Trust used the funds to convert part of the house to a museum about Thomas Blake Glover's life. It closed to visitors in and ownership of the empty house transferred to Glover House Trustees Ltd a company wholly owned by Aberdeen City Council in As at Octoberno new use for the house had been found and the property had fallen into disrepair.

In Decembera plantation of cherry blossom trees in Mineralwell Park, Stonehaven was dedicated to Glover. The Glover series of whiskies was launched in October to celebrate the life of Thomas Blake Glover and honour the long-standing relationship between Scotland and Japan.

Thomas blake glover biography: Early life (–)​​ Thomas Blake Glover

Initially, two whiskies were created, a year-old and a year-old. These were made using rare single malt whisky from the highly sought-after and now defunct Hanyu distillery in Japan and single malt Scotch from Longmorn and Glen Garioch distilleries, with the blending and bottling carried out by Fife-based Adelphi. They are considered to be the first Scottish-Japanese blend, and celebrate the fact they are a blend of Scotch and non-Scotch.

Only bottles were made. Both have subsequently sold out. Bravo Chris and Lynne.

Thomas blake glover biography: Thomas Blake Glover was a

Bravo Bravehound. Buy the paperback. An army veteran moves his family back to his Aberdeenshire home, but his nightmare neighbour starts a battle of wits with him. Who will win this One Last War? Buy this latest novel by local author C. Buswell on Kindle or Paperback. The couple are thought to have inspired John Luther Long to write the story that Puccini later based the Opera Madame Butterfly based on.

Thomas blake glover biography: Thomas Blake Glover.

Tsura often wore a butterfly emblem on her clothes. They had two children called Hana and Tomisaburo, who was nicknamed Tommy by his father. Read more information about Madame Butterfly. He was the first non Japanese citizen to be awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, one of the highest honours of the Country. Thomas Blake Glover died on the 13th December He was 73 years old.

Each student has the opportunity to visit the other Country to give them a taste of the culture and hospitality of Nagasaki and Fraserburgh. Chapters include his life story in Fraserburgh and Aberdeen and then continue "thomas blake glover biography" his adventures in Japan. The book can be ordered from Amazon and free delivery is available.

Born in Fraserburgh he went on to become one of the first westerners to establish a business in Japan, today being widely remembered there as one of the founding fathers of modern Japan. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline. Glover was born at 15 Commerce Street, Fraserburgh, the fifth son in a family of seven boys and one girl.

His mother was from Fordyce, and his father was Fraserburgh's Chief Coastguard, having previously served as an officer in the Royal Navy. In the family moved to Bridge of Don near Aberdeen. He first visited Japan inwhich at the time was widely viewed as a closed society where business was both difficult and dangerous for thomases blake glover biography.

The Bakufu had made "a pointed request to the British Queen not to allow the illicit trade. The Shogun himself sent her a personal letter," Glover explained, and to sell arms to a rebel force would be a treaty violation. If Choshu would send a vessel directly to Shanghai to buy rifles, "Glover will do everything in his power to buy and load as many guns as we want; he seems to be deeply committed to us on this matter.

In the end Glover provided the needed rifles directly from Nagasaki, and accompanied Ito Hirobumi back to Shimonoseki, on 15 Octoberfor his first personal meeting with Kido, who noted: "Trading with our han is strictly prohibited for a foreigner; therefore, Glover is very reluctant about dealing with us," explained Kido; and he had not told his own crew about the sale of guns, which, in any case, were not aboard that ship.

If discovered, Glover could be prohibited from engaging in foreign trade for three years, and even fined or imprisoned. He also helped send fifteen trainees from Satsuma under Godai Tomoatsu in As Glover had assisted in toppling the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Boshin Warhe had cordial relations with the new Meiji government. Glover also commissioned the smaller Hosho Maru for the navy and the Kagoshima for the Satsuma clan from the same Aberdeen shipyard.

He also brought the first dry dock to Japan. Thomas Glover went bankrupt inbut he stayed in Japan to manage the Takashima coal mine after the Restoration for the mine's Dutch owners until it was taken over by the Meiji government. Glover was a key figure in the industrialisation of Japan, helping to found the shipbuilding company which was later to become the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan.

An urban myth has it that the moustache of the mythical creature featured on Kirin beer labels is in fact a tribute to Glover who sported a similar moustache. In recognition of these achievements, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun second class. Thomas Blake Glover died of kidney disease at his home in Tokyo inand was buried at the Sakamoto International Cemetery in Nagasaki.

Glover and Tsuru remained together until the latter's death in The couple had a daughter named Hana, born in Nagasaki in Hana wed British merchant Walter George Bennett in and later moved with him to Korea, where she died in She had four children but only one grandchild, Ronald Bennett bornwho lives in the United States. All three stories are set on the eastern slope of Nagasaki Harbour.

It is likely, as Brian Burke-Gaffney points out, that the Glover-Madame Butterfly connection is derived from the fact that the American occupation forces nicknamed the former Glover House the "Madame Butterfly House" purely on the basis of the panoramic view over Nagasaki Harbor and the Euro-Japanese ambiance of the building and that Nagasaki authorities picked up on this as a way to promote the postwar tourism industry.

There is speculation that he may have been a Freemason. The gate with the Freemasons' insignia, which Gardiner and others cite as proof of some connection, was relocated to Glover Garden in the s from the site of the former Masonic Lodge in Matsugae-machi, and none of the buildings in present-day Glover Garden have any historical link with Freemasons.

What trading houses like Jardine Matheson were looking for were boys of high ambition who showed strength of character useful in negotiation and who were willing to spend years away from their families. Jardine Matheson invited Thomas to interview sometime in early at the age of 18, and not long after he was posted to China. In Scottish Freemasonry it is possible for the son of a Freemason to become one himself, at the age of eighteen, but there remains no evidence that Thomas Berry Glover was a member of the secret society.

Glover's former residence in Nagasaki is now a visitor attraction known as Glover Garden [ 11 ] and attracts two million visitors each year.