03.09.2024

Alexander Richard Glover 1942–2024

We heard the sad news last week that UK crane rental veteran Alex Glover has died.

He passed away on Tuesday, August 27th surrounded by his family, having spent the last five weeks in hospital, following a complication with a long term pulmonary disease. Apparently, despite his illness, he maintained his ‘chipper’ and helpful attitude to life until the end. We hope to add to this tribute to him and include funeral details later this week. In the meantime, here is a tribute to a man who has dedicated his life to the UK crane rental market for at least 45 years.

Glover began his working life in 1960 joining the British army with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers REME, where among other duties he spent time driving a heavy recovery truck and is likely to have started operating cranes at that time. He remained in the services for six years, during which time he served in Singapore and Borneo as well as the UK, and got married.

When it came to leaving the army, he found work with rental company Eddison, based in Wokingham before joining Richard Baldwin and Baldwins Crane Hire and in the four years with the company progressed to operating its largest crane.

In 1979, he decided to set up on his own and purchased a used crane he found in a scrap yard, what looks like a Coles Hydra Truck 15T. He renovated it and gave it a respray, using the only paint he had in his garage, yellow and orange, which remain the distinctive colours of the company today. He started the company from his house with his one crane.

Over the next decade two, Glover built the up business which is based in Farnham, Surrey, roughly halfway between Winchester and central London, into an increasingly important regional player and became particularly well known for pioneering the use of large telescopics.

In 1989, he took delivery of the first 500 tonne nine axle Demag AC1600 to arrive in the country. It was not all plain sailing for the family-owned company, which went through a few restructurings, voluntary liquidation and rebirths, but always remained a family-owned business trading under the Terranova name with its distinctive livery.

The fleet currently extends from the smallest spider cranes up to a 350 tonne, six axle, All Terrain, although we seem to have missed it out on last year’s Cranes & Access UK top 30 rental fleet survey, it is certainly in the top 30 with around 20 or so mobile cranes.

At Queen Elizabeth’s last jubilee Concert, Glover helped save the day by lifting the big outdoor screen into place after it had presented a real last-minute rigging challenge.

He leaves behind his wife of 62 years, Jean, son Alec, daughters Pam, Jane and Helen along with 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He was unquestionably a character and will be missed by many in the industry, past and present.

The video below will bring back some old memories for some.