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The son of businessman Charles Richmond John Glover and Elizabeth Maude (nee Hannam), Charles John Glover (known as John, or Jack to friends), was born on 30 August 1902. The family, which also included John’s older sister Thelma Violet Glover (b.19 February 1901), initially lived at Richmond House. In 1914 his father bought St Andrews at 121 Kingston Tce, North Adelaide, a grand home which had been designed by Adelaide architect James Macgeorge in 1861-2 (SLSA).
His father, Charles R.J. Glover served on the Adelaide City Council from 1909-1917 and became Adelaide’s Lord Mayor in 1919, holding that position again in 1923-25 and 1930-33. A member of the Church of England, Charles R.J. Glover was a well-known public benefactor, and was involved in many civic improvements in Adelaide, including children’s playgrounds which hold his name today (Hankel 1983).
The young John Glover attended Prince Alfred College before studying architecture at the South Australian School of Mines and Industries between 1924 until 1929. He was articled to Bruce and Harral architects from 2 April 1923 to 23 April 1927 then employed as a draughtsman with the same practice. Glover was admitted as an Associate member of the South Australian Institute of Architects on 26 August 1930 (SAIA Roll Book). Later, in 1941 Glover was among the first cohort of South Australians to become Registered as an Architect (SAGG, 23/01/1941).
In May 1930, John Glover travelled overseas, meeting up with fellow young Adelaide architect, Jack Cheesman. Together they ‘hired an old car and spent four weeks around England, Scotland and Wales’ (Cheesman 1980, p21). Much of Glover and Cheesman’s touring was taken up with visits to cathedrals, abbeys, castles and villages, including tourist spots such as Cambridge, Edinburgh Castle, Lake Windermere, Stratford-on-Avon, and Stonehenge (Cheesman Travel Diary).
In 1934, Glover married famous musical comedy star Josie (Josephine Mary) Melville (1903-1963) at St John’s Church, Halifax St, Adelaide (Adelaide AZ; ‘Josie Melville Married’, 1934 p4). The couple lived at St Andrews in North Adelaide while they built a home nearby at 161 Childers St, North Adelaide. Together, Josie and John Glover had one son, Charles John Melville Glover in 1936 (Adelaide AZ). However, their marriage ended when they divorced in 1953 (‘Architect sues for divorce’, 1953 p4). Josie passed away in Sydney in 1963 (SLSA). In the year after his divorce Glover married Barbara Anderson of St Peters on 16 June 1954 (Armitage, 1954, p12). The couple stayed together until Glover passed away 10 January 1969 aged 66 years. He is buried at Centennial Park cemetery.
Outside of his work as an architect, John Glover followed his father into civic life serving as an Alderman in the McDonnell Ward on the Adelaide City Council from 1935 and later as The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of Adelaide from 1960-63 (‘Mr John Glover’, 1935, p7, ‘Take Seats for First Time’, 1935, p5). While Lord Mayor of Adelaide Glover hosted a Civic Reception in honour of the 1963 Convention of The Royal Adelaide Institute of Architects (Laybourne Smith collection S204/1/6/6).
During World War Two Glover served in the Australian Army, enlisting on 8 February 1939 becoming a Lieutenant with the 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion and later becoming adjutant of the Machine Gun Training Battalion in the Middle East before being discharged 27 September 1943 (World War Two Nominal Roll). He would later rejoin to become Captain and serving overseas in HQ Morotai Force in 1946 sitting on the War Crimes Commission trials. Military records indicate that Glover was 5 foot 10 inches with blue eyes and dark brown hair. After the war Glover was secretary of the 2/3rd Battalion Unit Club and a member of the headquarters sub-branch of the Returned Servicemen’s League (‘Last War Men to Stand for Poll in R.S.L.’, 1946, p3). During the World War Two George Gavin Lawson continued his practice and also represented the practice of Barrett, Glover and Pointer while their members were on active service.
Glover’s interests and associations also included as a member of the Freemason’s in the Lodge of Harmony No. 3, an old scholar of Prince Alfred College, and the Fire Brigade’s Board. He was Director of the South Australian Gas Company from 1947 to 1969, and Chairman from 1963 to 1969. Glover was made a member of he Adelaide Club in 1961. Glover became the President of the inaugural Adelaide Festival of the Arts in 1962 and continued to serve on the Festival’s Board of Governors until his death in 1969. His widow Lady Barbara Glover gave $10,000 to the Adelaide City Council for a fountain in his hour to be commissioned for the Adelaide Festival Centre which was designed by Milton Moon in consultation with hydraulic Engineer Dr Robert Culver (Fazakerley 2016).
In May 1932 Glover joined with Harold Irvine Barrett, to form Barrett and Glover architects with offices in the Trustee Building, 22 Grenfell street, Adelaide. Barrett had also lived in North Adelaide at 94 Kingston Terrace, and had graduated from the South Australian School of Mines and Industries in 1922. Stanley Trevor Pointer, who had graduated in 1927, joined them in the practice in 1938 which became known as Barrett, Glover and Pointer. From 1949 the practice became known as Glover and Pointer.
Barrett, Glover and Pointer were important architects in the uptake of the modern style in South Australia. Among the most striking of their works is the Hotel Bay View for Frank Pratten on the corner of Forsyth and Farrell Streets in the industrial town of Whyalla (Mazourek 20**). The steel manufacturing town grew quickly during the Second World War and Decoration and Glass magazine reported in 1942 that, ‘The new Bay View Hotel has been planned to be in keeping with the modern atmosphere of the town and to reflect some of the prosperity it enjoys’ (‘Country Hotel’, 1942, p20). The 32 room hotel was constructed of ‘locally made concrete bricks, the two main elevations … were faced with Hallett’s textured buff bricks … There was a continuous concrete awning along the two main facades and walls tiles in 6’ x6’ cream and buff glazed tiles from pavement level to the underside of the awnings… with blue horizontal strip tiles’ (Bell et al., 2008). Among the most striking design elements is the tower above the curved corner entrance which also served a functional purpose, housing the concrete water storage tank for the hotel.
Glover undertook several fire station designs in both metropolitan and regional areas including at Woodville (Barrett and Glover 1938), Clare (Glover and Pointer 1952), Mt Gambier (Glover and Pointer 1955), and St Mary’s (Glover and Pointer 1964). The Woodville Fire Station on Findon Road at Woodville was designed by Barrett and Glover for the SA Fire Brigade’s Board and is a two storey rendered building with brick detailing which stood adjacent to General Motor’s Holden’s motor body building works (‘The New Woodville Fire Station’, 1937, p18). It held two vehicle bays which were detailed with ornate fluted parapets and a vertical fin over the entrances as well as having tiled surrounds. While it had a pitched terracotta tiled roof, in its façade treatment Art Deco elements dominated. It has heritage listing and has been adapted to become holiday accommodation.
In Mt Gambier in the state’s South East, a fire station was designed by Glover and Pointer in 1955. It’s street elevation comprises a main pedestrian entrance, a fire brigade vehicle garage and a control room which are delineated through changes in parapet height, window form and wall surface projection. The horizontally banded rendered walls also included tiled surfaces which made this a modern functionalist addition to the streetscape as well as a prototype for other regional fire stations (Mt Gambier Heritage Survey 1994). The building has heritage listing and has been adaptively reused for commercial purposes and in 2025 was being used of as an optometry practice.
In 1940 Barrett, Glover and Pointer were among the six private architectural practices which were employed to prepare plans of munitions factories in South Australia (‘Architects for Defence Work’, 1940, p8). Other South Australian practices involved in this war work were Hocart and Gliddon, Russell and Yelland, Ashton and Fisher, Garlick and Jackman, and F. Kenneth Milne.
The architectural practices Glover was part of played an important role in the design of buildings for charitable organisations. Among these were the Adelaide Workmen’s Homes. Historian Geoffrey Manning recorded that, ‘In his last will and testament Sir Thomas Elder left £25,000 for the purpose of founding the Adelaide Workmen's Homes … the objects of the trust [were set out as] ‘to benefit workmen by providing them with suitable dwellings at a reasonable rental’ (Manning, ‘Cottage Homes’ SLSA). In 1935 Barrett and Glover designed two pairs of semi-detached houses for Adelaide Workmen’s Homes Inc. at Hilton. They followed this in 1936 and 1939 with further homes at Hilton including further semidetached houses, single brick houses, and a Solomit house (Willis; ‘Tenders called’ 30 May 1935, p10; ‘Tenders called’, 1936, p11).
In 1938, Barrett, Glover and Pointer designed the John Melrose Memorial Hostel for the Royal Institution for the Blind ‘aged and infirm blind’ in Archer Street, North Adelaide (‘Sir John Melrose Memorial Fund’, 1938, p24; ‘John Melrose Memorial Hostel’, 1938, p27). It was opened on 21 July 1940 and accommodated 14 residents. John Glover was elected to the board of management for the hostel (‘Record Aid for the Blind’, 1940, p16).
he Lucy Morice free Kindergarten on the corner of Sussex and West Pallant streets, Lower North Adelaide was named after Lucy Morice, who was a social reformer and a founder of the Kindergarten Union of South Australia in the first half of the twentieth century. The redbrick building was designed by Barrett and Glover architects and opened in 1935 (Monument Australia; Carmichael 2002). A newspaper report of 1935 described it as ‘Designed on modernistic lines, the building will consist of a main entrance hall 30 x 37 feet, with large sliding doors at one end. Leading from it will be a room 20 x 14 feet for the infant section. At the other end spacious bay window treatment will form an imposing feature form both inside and out. On the eastern side will be placed large openings carrying sliding glass sashes to catch the maximum amount of sun and air’ (‘Free Kindergarten at North Adelaide’, 1935, p16.)
In 1959, Glover and Pointer designed the kindergarten at St Theodore’s Church, Prescott Tce, Toorak Gardens (‘Tenders called’, The Builder, 22 May 1959, 36 (21) p25). About the Workers Homes at Hilton in 1937, The Mail reported that, ‘The architects, Barrett & Glover, worked to produce a good, sound type of house that could be let at a low rental. A special feature of the design is the compact internal layout. Simplicity will be the keynote of these houses, but at the same time they are modern in conception, and will be fitted up with a degree of convenience lacking in many older houses claiming higher rentals’ (‘New Workers’ Houses at Hilton’, 1937, p25).
Commercial work the practices were involved with included premises for the Bank of Adelaide across the state. Glover and Pointer carried out smaller commercial work as well, including a rest centre for customers to wait in while their cars were being serviced Classen Sales and Service on Springbank Road, Springbank (‘Rest Room for Clients’, Advertiser, 4 August 1953, p13).
John Glover was recognised in the New Years Honours list of 1969 when he was bestowed a Knight Bachelor for his services to local government and the community. He died ten days later.
Susan Lustri and Julie Collins
Citation: Lustri, Susan and Collins, Julie 'Glover, Chares John, Architecture Museum, University of South Australia, 2025, Architects of South Australia: [https://architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au/arch_full.asp?Arch_ID=171]
Please note: the buildings table for Glover is still being added to.
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Architects of South Australia, Copyright 2008, Updated regularly