Background
Marmaduke Grove Vallejo was born in Coliapo on 6 June 1879.
Marmaduke Grove Vallejo was born in Coliapo on 6 June 1879.
He graduated from the military school as an artillery lieutenant.
He became colonel by 1926 and founded the Chilean Air Force. In that year, he was named Chilean military attaché in London, but two years later he was dismissed by President Ibanez because of a meeting with exiled ex-President Alessandri. In 1930 Grove participated in an unsuccessful coup against Ibanez and was exiled to Easter Island, but made a spectacular escape and went back to Europe.
With the overthrow of Ibânez in August 1931, Marmaduque Grove returned home, to command the Chilean Air Force. He led the coup of June 4, 1932, which proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Chile. Although Grove led the Socialist Republic for less than two weeks, he rallied wide support among trade unionists and left-wing intellectuals.
In elections for president in November 1932, Grove was candidate of the Socialist Alliance, a group of small parties that had supported his regime in June. He got almost one-third of the votes but lost to ex-President Alessandri.
In April 1933 the Socialist Alliance became the Socialist Party. Grove was soon after elected to the Senate and was proclaimed Life President of the new party. In 1938 it supported him as candidate of the Popular Front, but the Radicals and Communists imposed the nomination of a Radical, Pedro Aguirre Cerda, who was ultimately elected. However, in this period Grove undoubtedly had more popularity among rank-and-file Chileans than any other political leader, more because of personal charisma than because of exposition of clear political ideas.
In 1943 Grove split with the majority of the Socialist leaders when he advocated entering the cabinet of President Juan Antonio Rios Morales and supported ultimately merging the Socialist and Communist parties. He split away to organize the Authentic Socialist Party. When that party finally decided to merge with the Communists, Grove returned to the Socialist Party. He remained a senator until 1949.
Grove participated in the Military Junta of junior officers whose demands ultimately forced the resignation of President Arturo Alessandri Palma in September 1924. Four months later, in January 1925, he was co-leader with Carlos Ibanez del Campo of another junior officers’ coup that resulted in Alessandri’s being summoned back to the presidency.
