Charles Sidney Groves Arca was born in Leicester, England, 1878. Stained glass was integral to the teaching in early twentieth-centur British schools of art and design, which aimed at giving a foundation 11 both the fine and the applied arts. This was emulated at the Grahamstown School of Art, where Charles Groves came to teach in 1905. He won a scholarship to the RCA in London, where the great thinker on the industrial application of decorative design, W.R. Lethaby, had been appointed Professor in 1901. He trained in the design of stained glass, the illumination of manuscripts as well as in basic drawing and painting, he arrived in Grahamstown. He later taught at the Cape Town School of Art and then as a Senior Lecturer at UCT's Michaelis School of Fine Art, after it opened in 1924. A commission from UCT in 1930 was for the design of a series of windows for Smuts Hall on themes from early colonial histon In 1938 he designed a window with the Coat of Arms of the Union of SA and the emblems of its four provinces for the entrance room of the SA National Gallery. His daughter Mary Groves executed this design. Grove regularly showed with SASA, preferring to enter his landscapes, painted in a delicate Oriental style. He served as a President of SASA from 1928 to 1929, and was also a member of the K Club and EPSAC. He died in Cape Town, 1964. 

Exhibitor on SASA-related exhibitions c.1898 - 1950: 1910: 3rd Annual Exh. of the SAFA/ combined with SASA and SADC, Drill Hall, fm. 2 Nov. 1917: SASA Art Exh., MH. City Hoi Darling St., 7 Feb. 1917: SASA watercolour Exh., Society's Gall., 42 Burg St., 14 Aug. 1911 SASA Art Exh., MH, City Had, Darling St., 6 Feb. 1918: SASA Winter Exh. (i.'enuc notsta ed) 7 - 24 Aug. 1919: SASA Art Exh., MH, City Hall, Darling St., 6 Feb. 1920: SASA W.nt Exh., (venue not stated) 17 Sep. 1921: SASA 20th Annual Exh, (venue not staled) Mar. (I dace). 1922: SASA 21st Annual Exh., RH, City Hall, Darling St., 30 Jan. 18Feb. 1924: SAS 24th Annual Exh., RH, City Hall, 4 Dec. 1931: 1st Annual Exh. of Contemp. National Ai SAAG (SANGJ with SASA, 7 Dec. - 31 Mar. 1932. 1936: SASA sect., with NA S inde artists, 6th Annual Exh. ofContemp. Arc, SANG, 17 Dec. - 17 Feb. 1937. 1937: SASA 35 Annual Exh., AG, Burg St., 23 August.1938: SASA sect., with NA, 8th Annual Exh. Contemp. Art, SANG, 15 Dec - 15 Feb. 1939. 1945: 42nd Annual Exh. of Contemp. SA Ai org. by SASA, MMG, 6 - 20 Apr. 1946: 43rd Annual Exh. ofContemp. SA Art, an. by SAS with NSA, MMG, 5 - 23 Apr. 1946: SASA Members' Exh., Ashbey's Gall., Church St., 6 -. Sep. 1947: 44th Annual Exh. ofContemp. SA Art, arr. by SASA, MMG, 11 . 26 Apr. 194 SASA Members' Annual Exh., MMG, 9 - 22 Sep. 1948: SASA 45th Annual Exh., MMG,. Apr. - 1 May. 1949: SASA Members' Annual Exh., MMG, 14-27 Sep.

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