'The Life of Edward Kennaway Groves: His Achievements and His Disappointments (1836-1917)', by John D Owen

Typed manuscript biography of Edward Kennaway Groves who was a mechanical engineer and businessman working in the sugar refinery and iron industries in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, India, in the mid to late nineteenth century. He was also an active member of the Christian Brethren, and not infrequent critic of the Betheseda establishment.

John Owen was born in 1933 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, where his father had a small cutlery business. At the age of thirteen he was sent to boarding school at the The Leys School in Cambridge and was subsequently admitted to Clare College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he read Natural Sciences, followed by three years of pre-clinical training at the Westminster Hospital, qualifying as a doctor in 1958. After two further years of post-graduate study John obtained a place in general practice in Colchester, Essex, where he remained for the next 33 years until his retirement in 1993. During this period he served on a number of medical committees, contributed papers to several scientific journals and co-wrote a textbook of obstetrics and gynaecology for general practioners. In 1989 John was awarded an MBE for his services to medicine.

John’s interests include mountaineering and travel. Since 1970 John has enjoyed rock climbing whilst he and his wife, Patricia, have spent many of their holidays in mountainous regions (six visits to the Himalayas and many visits to the Alps). They have also travelled by Land Rover across Europe, including on two occasions venturing as far as Istanbul in Turkey. When time allows John enjoys playing golf two or three times a week and gardening.

John and Patricia married in 1959 and have had three children. Forty years later John and Patricia were blessed with a grandson and this event triggered an interest in family history which John has been passionately pursuing ever since. In addition to his manuscript biography of Edward Kennaway Groves (subsequently published by Tentmaker Press in December 2012) John also worked on editing the Douthwaite-Groves papers (MS 381056) which are on deposit here at SOAS Special Collections and Archives.

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Gift from author, December 2012

For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance

Copyright held by author

MS 381056, the Douthwaite-Groves papers.