Thomas Glover Dies in Tokyo and Is Buried in Nagasaki

Thomas Blake Glover died in Tokyo in 1911, ending more than half a century of connections with Japan. He had arrived in Nagasaki in 1859 and established a trading business there. Arms sales, coal mining and shipbuilding tied him to Japanese domain officials and later commercial organizations.

His work did not remain confined to an independent Glover firm. Mining ventures passed through Japanese partnerships and ownership changes, and he advised Mitsubishi. Financial reverses and business transfers had already altered his position before his final years. His death therefore ended an individual career within enterprises whose work could continue under other owners and managers.

After his death, his body was cremated in Tokyo. A funeral took place in Nagasaki in December, and his remains were buried at Sakamoto International Cemetery. Part of the remains of his wife Tsuru, who had died in 1899, was also interred there.

The burial returned him to the port where he had built his commercial network and household. The grave and surviving residence preserve different parts of that history: family commemoration and the material setting of foreign trade. Neither was the sole source of the mining, shipping and industrial work carried on by Japanese partners and workers.