| 4. | Thomas Burt Glanville was born on 23 Feb 1822 in Totnes, Devon, England (son of Thomas Glanville and Anna Maria Burt); died on 1 May 1878 in Horsell, Woking, Surrey, England. Notes:
Grahamstown Journal 1878 - 2 - April to June
We learn with very great regret the tidings of the death of Mr. Thomas Burt GLANVILLE, so well known and so much respected in this colony. He died at Woking in Surrey on 1st May, and from the brief intelligence that has in various ways reached us, it is probable that the immediate cause of death was heart disease. Circumstances today do not admit of our doing justice to his memory in the columns of this Journal, which was for many years edited by him with conspicuous ability. We can but express our sense of the loss which South Africa sustains in the death of a public servant, thoroughly acquainted with our affairs and well able to defend the views and interests of the colony at home. There are very few men who to so much mental power, wit and intelligence, joined the quality of being so generally beloved; and it will be some consolation to his bereaved relatives, both in this country and in England, to feel that Mr. GLANVILLE will be mourned as widely as he was known.
THOMAS BURT GLANVILLE
The mournful event of the death of Mr. Thomas Burt GLANVILLE, which was recorded in our last issue, cannot fail to be regarded as a public calamity; and in no community will it be more keenly felt than in Grahamstown, where many years of the most vigorous part of his life were spent, and where he gained the well earned reputation as a brilliant writer, and as a wise and sagacious politician, by which his name and memory must ever be distinguished.
It was in the year 1865 that he first became associated with this journal, and while it worthily occupied the high and influential position to which it had been guided by the skill and talent of the Father of the Eastern Press, Mr. GLANVILLE’s connection with it became noticeable by the cheerful, genial style which ever marked the production of his pen. Following the line on which he found it, the Journal, under his management, continued a course of honest, judicious devotion to Eastern province interests. No political or social occurrences escaped attention. The active and vigilant Editor was ever ready with the appropriate suggestion, and the opportune advice given in that animated strain, that singular felicity of language, which were so peculiarly his own.
The Journal has had a long – it would only be affectation if we did not add – a serviceable career. It has never shrunk from or evaded duty, and every honest witness must testify that it lost no prestige, it suffered no diminution of public favour, while controlled and directed by him whose loss we now deplore; and if in the future it can be conducted as he conducted it, if its opinions can be expressed as forcibly as under his facile pen they were expressed, we may safely hope that its coming time will not be utterly unworthy of its past history.
We do not intend to ignore the fact that there were some who did find fault with his writings, nor do we mean to say that those who withheld the merit of praise, given so ungrudgingly by the majority of his readers, were moved by any unworthy motives. There were thoroughly honest men who did not hesitate to say that his politics were colourless and his opinions not sufficiently pronounced; but looking back now upon events which he was dealing with, as they were transpiring ere their final issues were ascertained, it will be difficult to point to any instances in which his judgement was at fault, while we can observe many which prove that his hesitancy was prudent. With regard to the very uncertainty which was complained of, nothing is easier than to fall in with popular views, nothing more natural than to adopt commonly accepted impressions; it is the truest wisdom to pause while there is uncertainty, and to be positive only when the evidence is clear and the arguments conclusive, and so we are bold enough to say that if the mission of Thomas Burt GLANVILLE is fairly considered in its relation to the Chronicles of the colony and the important facts they record, it will be found that he hesitated only when it was folly to be oracular; and that when he was decided in his opinions he expressed the opinions of a sagacious, as well as a prudent man.
This sagacity to which we are referring was always a prominent feature in his character. Never was there a safer adviser, or one who more conspicuously possessed the faculty of directing the course which should be taken under embarrassing circumstances. He was invaluable as a member of a committee. If conditions were perplexing, opinions conflicting and parties antagonistic, a few words from him removed difficulties, reconciled views that were diverse, and men that were hostile, and speedily carried harmonious and judicious resolutions. And all this he would effect with unvarying kindness; he inflicted no wounds, he delighted in giving pleasure, and hundreds in the Colony hear pleasant and agreeable recollections of the associations which it as their good fortune to have with him while he lived in their midst. It is no wonder that he should have been chosen as a member of the Colonial Parliament. He was first elected to the House of Assembly as one of the representatives for the district of Victoria East, and held that position for two years. This was at a time when the Sessions of the Legislature were protracted, and required a very much longer attendance at Capetown than could reasonably be expected from a business man. The imperative call of his duties here required him to resign his seat, and it was not until some years later that upon the urgent and pressing requisition of his fellow citizens he was induced to enter the House of Assembly again as a member for this City. He was now forced to take part in the great battle of Responsible Government, which in those days shook colonial society to its very centre. Though systematically opposing that change, it was obvious to him that its occurrence was inevitable, and that the passing of the measure was only a question of time; hence, while steadily voting with his party, he took the opportunity of making suggestions which proved to be useful. For instance, we believe it was he who recommended that in the arrangement of the Executive offices, that of Secretary for native Affairs should be created; and subsequent events have shown that our colonial relations needed the constitution of that office.
He was by no means a frequent speaker in the House; he spoke only when he had something to say, and he possessed the rare art of leaving off when he had said it. Essentially an impromptu speaker, he excelled in the talent of being able to take all the salient points of a question, and state them in clear, forcible, often eloquent terms. Skilful in debate, few men could more readily collect the arguments of an opponent, and more effectually answer them. It was never his lot to address an impatient audience. He was never a bore. On the contrary, he had an exhaustless fund of anecdote, a keen and refined sense of humour, and thus was able to enliven his addresses with the most charming sallies of wit, by means of which, when in the vein, he could with the utmost facility throw his hearers into uncontrollable laughter.
A very significant proof of the impression he had made in the House of Assembly was given by the invitation he received from Mr. MOLTENO to join the first Colonial Ministry, with the offer of the Portfolio for Native Affairs. When this transpired his friends eagerly desired that he should accept the overtures of the Premier elect. It was hoped that with a seat in the Cabinet he would obtain a wider field of usefulness, , for the exercise of his peculiar powers; and we make no doubt whatever that if he had responded to that call, his influence would have been felt in shaping the destinies of the Colony, as it was in every position in which it was exercised. But the imperious demands of the business of the firm with which he was connected, which under his enterprise had now become extended to the Diamond Fields, forced him to decline the proffered honour, and soon after to give up the representation of the City in Parliament.
He was now able to give closer attention to the new and important engagements which he had undertaken at the Fields. He had been one of the earliest to visit this newly developed source of wealth. He saw at a glance that the discovery of diamonds would give an impetus to the commerce of South Africa, such as had never yet been experienced, and therefore lost no time in planting there a branch of his firm, and establishing the Diamond News, both of which projects under his fostering care rapidly grew, and by their results more than answered his expectations, and demonstrated his shrewdness and sagacity.
It was in the year 1873 that he yielded to the yearning anxiety to visit England, which is so common in those who leave the Mother Country in early life. Though he had become a genuine colonist, he was a true son of old England. His native land had held a charm for him which he could not resist, and as soon as favouring conditions permitted he took leave of us to go back to the home of his childhood. The keen enjoyment and the rich delight which this visit gave him were well described in a series of deeply interesting letters written by him, and from time to time published in these columns. He had not been there long ere he was fixed in London, and hard at work. His partners had resolved upon another enterprise; the Empire newspaper was established, and again he occupied the Editor’s sanctum, with his usual and customary success – a want long felt was admirably met, and a journal was published in London for the use of colonists, by colonists. European subjects were handled as it were from a colonial point of view, and the same buoyant style which had enlivened the pages of the Journal, gratified the supporters of the Empire, which has so far followed a satisfactory course, and has enjoyed much public favour.
The duties of conducting a newspaper – always harassing and laborious – were at length too severe for a man whose health needed lighter and less irregular work, so that he was led to accept the office of Emigration Commissioner, in succession to his friend Mr. FULLER. His occupation now involved much responsibility, and the uniform business of a Colonial department, but it was at least free from worry and hard labour. His large experience, attractive manners and kind heart rendered him specially adapted for his post. He was constantly in communication with those wanting information respecting “The Cape”. Intending emigrants sought his advice, and his rooms were a convenient resort to Colonists visiting England. He was always actively engaged in collecting emigrants for the Colony, under the Government scheme, or recruits for the Police Force, and making arrangements for their voyage; he seemed happy in his work, a long career of public usefulness in that special department seemed to be opening for him, his looks were those of a man in his prime, and his friends reasonably expected for him many years of good service, and might have hoped that he would enjoy in the evening of life a long and vigorous old age, when they were startled first by the intelligence of his illness, and then, saddest of all, by the news of his death.
And thus has passed away a marked and [typical] man, one whose broad generous sympathies lifted him above all that was mean or selfish; whose gentleness of manner, considerateness of behaviour, and goodness of heart, won for him in his life “troops of friends”, and who now in his death leaves a memory which will be loved and cherished by all who knew him. { per Lynn MacLeod }
Thomas + Wilmot Watson. Wilmot was born about 1826 in Totnes, Devon, England; died about 1917 in St Thomas, Devon, , England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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1888 - 1896 (7 years)
Jane Cotterell, 1820 Settler was born in 1788 in England (daughter of Cotterell); died on 14 Mar 1853 in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa; was buried in Grahamstown Cemetery (Wesleyan/Methodist), Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. 
