78 Glynn Vivian
Born in 1835, Richard Glynn
Vivian was the fourth and youngest son of John Henry Vivian MP of Singleton
Abbey and owner of the Hafod copperworks, and he was educated at Eton and Cambridge University . Although his elder brothers, Henry Hussey of
Parc Wern and Graham of Clyne Castle, were closely involved in running the firm
Vivian & Sons, and Glynn inherited one quarter of the business in 1855 when
his father died, he took on no responsibility with it, choosing to travel widely,
collecting works of art, paintings and ceramics, and visiting theatres, opera
houses and botanical gardens. In just
one year he visited Italy, Sicily, the West Indies, North America and Canada,
and in later years South Africa, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. He kept detailed journals of his travels, with
sketches and photographs. He was a
patron of the French artist Gustave Doré, after whose death in 1883 he made
purchases at the artist's studio sale of Doré’s illustrated books.
Glynn Vivian’s first engagement
to marry was broken off after an allegation of improper conduct at Osterley
House in Isleworth in 1877, but he married aged fifty in 1885 at the British
Embassy in Paris: it was not a happy union, and six years later his wife
divorced him. He settled at Sketty Hall
in 1898, laying out the extensive Italian gardens, adding balconies, and
building the gazebo tower above the roof to give panoramic views of Swansea and the
surrounding area. When aged sixty-seven however,
Glynn Vivian became blind, and three years later offered his art collection, with
a gallery in which to house it, to Swansea . Initially there was reluctance to accept his
offer because of maintenance costs, but when the offer was renewed in 1908, following
a poll of ratepayers, it was accepted. Designed
by Swansea architect Glendinning Moxham in an
Edwardian Baroque style, the Art
Gallery ’s foundation
stone was laid by Glynn Vivian on 14th May 1909. The following year he died of pneumonia aged
74 at his London
house, 24 Eaton Square ,
so the completed building was opened by his brother Graham of Clyne
Castle.
Glynn Vivian published a book of
his poems ‘E Tenebris Lux’ (meaning “Out of Darkness, Light”), and in Caswell
founded the Glynn
Vivian Home
for the Blind, on the site of which Mary Twill Grove now stands.
The Vivians supported the
established church, then the Church of England.
Henry Hussey had St Paul ’s Church in
Sketty built in memory of his first wife, who died in childbirth, and later erected
St John’s Church in Hafod where many of the firm’s
work-force lived, while Graham Vivian built Clyne Chapel, stipulating that it
be free of stained glass or any Anglo-Catholic decoration. But Glynn Vivian moved in a different
direction. At his doctor’s
recommendation he visited Brighton in 1905,
where the preaching at the Union Street Mission led to his
conversion to Evangelical Christianity.
With a change in his priorities he established the Glynn Vivian Miners’ Mission
(now the International Miners’ Mission ),
with an endowment of £30,000 – a huge amount at that time. The first pastor of the Miners’ Mission in Pentremawr
Road - the building designed by Glendinning Moxham
still stands - was his own valet and private secretary, Herbert Voke, and their first overseas mission was started in
1908 in a remote copper mining area of Japan .
Glynn Vivian’s benevolence has
spread far beyond the Art
Gallery that bears his
name.
Richard
Glynn Vivian 1905
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