Background
George Grove was born on August 13, 1820 in London, United Kingdom. He was the eighth of the eleven children of Thomas Grove (1774-1852), fishmonger and venison dealer, and his wife, Mary (1784-1856), née Blades.
George Grove was born on August 13, 1820 in London, United Kingdom. He was the eighth of the eleven children of Thomas Grove (1774-1852), fishmonger and venison dealer, and his wife, Mary (1784-1856), née Blades.
George Grove went to a preparatory school, on Clapham Common, where one of his schoolfellows was George Granville Bradley. He next entered Stockwell (later known as Clapham) Grammar School, run by Charles Pritchard, the astronomer. The educational curriculum was based on classics, divinity, mathematics and natural philosophy, and rigorously tested by annual examination.
He was a regular worshipper at Holy Trinity church, Clapham, where he heard the music of Bach and Handel. By the age of sixteen, he was competent in classics and mathematics; he left the school in 1836 and was apprenticed to Alexander Gordon, a well-known civil engineer in Westminster. In his free time, he immersed himself in music, attending concerts and studying scores.
After completing his apprenticeship, George Grove was admitted as a graduate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1839. A year later he went to Glasgow, gaining further experience in the factory of Robert Napier.
Between 1841 and 1846, George Grove spent most of his time in the West Indies, as resident engineer during the building of cast-iron lighthouses. After this he joined the staff of the Chester and Holyhead Railway and then became assistant to Edwin Clark, working on the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait. During this period, he lived in Chester, hearing music in the cathedral and also becoming familiar with Welsh folksong.
George Grove began his career as a civil engineer and became secretary to the Society of Arts in 1850 and to the Crystal Palace in 1852. He collaborated with William Smith in his Dictionary of the Bible and was largely responsible for organizing the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1865. From 1856 to 1896 he wrote analytical notes for the Crystal Palace concerts; marked by enthusiasm, insight, and thoroughness, these established a standard in program commentary. In 1867 he visited Vienna with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan and discovered the manuscripts for Schubert’s Rosamunde. He was editor of Macmillan’s Magazine from 1868 to 1883. During the years 1879-1889 his Dictionary was published; in addition to supervising its contents, he contributed several articles to it. In 1882 George Grove became first director of the Royal College of Music and was knighted.
George Grove retired at Christmas 1894, when he was succeeded by Parry. By this time, a new building had been constructed for the College. In 1896 Grove's Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies, "addressed to the amateurs of this country", appeared.
Early in 1899, Grove's health began to fail, and he died, aged 79, on 28 May 1900, in the house at Sydenham in which he had lived for nearly 40 years.George Grove was buried in the Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries.
In 1841 George Grove had an affair with a woman called Elizabeth Blackwell, who gave birth to his illegitimate son, George Grove Blackwell, in March 1842.