Famous Scots. Thomas Blake Glover.

Thomas Blake Glover (6 June 1838 – 16 December 1911) was an Anglo-Scottish merchant in Bakumatsu and Meiji-period Japan.

Early life (1838–1858)

thomas Blake Glover was born at 15 Commerce Street, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire in northeast Scotland on 6 June 1838, the fifth of eight children, to Thomas Berry Glover (1806-1878), a coastguard officer from Vauxhall, London and Mary Findlay (1807-1887) from the parish of Fordyce, Banffshire. Thomas Blake Glover spent the first six years of his life in Fraserburgh, which was fast expanding as a fishing and trading port.

In 1844, the family moved first to coastguard stations at Grimsby, then Collieston in Aberdeenshire, then finally to the Bridge of Don, by Aberdeen, Thomas senior having by this time been promoted to Chief Coastguard Officer. Young Thomas was educated first at the recently opened parish school in Fraserburgh, then in primary schools in Grimsby, Collieston, and finally at the Chanonry School in Old Aberdeen. Upon leaving school, Glover took a job as a shipping clerk with the trading company Jardine Matheson and in 1857 he moved to Shanghai.

Japan (1859–1911)

In 1859, aged 21, Glover crossed from Shanghai to Nagasaki and worked initially buying Japanese green tea. Two years later, he founded his own firm, Glover and Co. (Guraba-Shokai).

His business was based in Nagasaki. It was here that he had his home constructed; the building remains today as the oldest Western-style building in Japan.

Anti-western sentiment was rife in Japan in the Bakumatsu period due to the unbalanced treaty agreements imposed upon the Tokugawa shogunate by the United States and other western powers, which included extraterritorial rights. Nationalistic militants in Satsuma and Chōshū spearheaded anti-government efforts aimed at toppling the Shogunate and restoring the Emperor as sovereign. It was these factions, later to become leaders in the Meiji Restoration government, that Glover supplied with arms and warships.

Some of the arms sales to rebellious factions in the Western regions of Japan (i.e., Satsuma and Choshu) were conducted in violation of treaty agreements between Great Britain and Japan as well as Japanese law.

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. “Glover feels sorry for us,” Kido explained to the Seijido [Political Council] in Yamaguchi, “but there is nothing he can do”. The Scot did have a suggestion to circumvent the Bakufu. 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 October 1865, for 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.

In 1863, Glover helped the Chōshū Five travel to London on Jardine Matheson ships. He also helped send fifteen trainees from Satsuma under Godai Tomoatsu in 1865. The same year, he was also responsible for bringing a small-scale steam locomotive and cars to Japan, which he demonstrated on a short track in the Ōura district of Nagasaki, causing a sensation and alerting Japan to the benefits of railway transportation.