Jose Galvez Egusquiza , was born in Cajamarca on March 17, 1819 and died in Callao on May 2, 1866. Son of Colonel Lima José Gálvez y Paz , who was a deputy in 1826 and founded the Cajamarca College of Sciences, and the lady of Cajamarca María Micaela de Egúsquiza y Aristizábal . He studied at the Central College of Sciences and Arts, directed by the presbyter Juan Pío Burga and, upon graduating, due to family circumstances, he was in charge of managing his Catudén farm for some time. It was only around 1842 that he moved to Lima, enrolling in the convictory of San Carlos, whose rector was the famous priest and sacred orator Bartolomé Herrera . He opted for a law degree in 1845 and for five years practiced his profession in the area of Cerro de Pasco and Tarma. In 1850 he returned to Lima, joining the teaching staff of the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe school and, two years later, he became the school's director, replacing his brother Pedro de el. The extremely liberal orientation that he gave to his educational work on this campus differed radically from the conservative instruction that he had received in the San Carlos Convictory. When the uprising of General Ramón Castilla took place in Arequipa, he joined his contingent, collaborating to resolve the abolition of the indigenous tribute (July 5, 1854) and the emancipation of slaves (November 3, 1854), whose necessity he had permanently defended from the classrooms.
He participated in the battle of La Palma (January 5, 1855) and, due to the triumph of the Castilian revolution, he was appointed rector of the San Carlos convictory, bravely fighting the conservative orientation developed by Bartolomé Herrera. In 1857 Castilla dissolved the National Convention of which Gálvez was a deputy, an attitude that made him his exalted opponent, from the writing of the Constitutional newspaper (April 3 to August 1, 1858). To prevent the new Constitution of November 13, 1860 from prevailing, he was a member together with Ricardo Palma and other liberals and officers of a conspiracy to victimize Castilla, storming his house on Calle de las Divorciadas (November 23, 1860). Failed the attempt, he had to take refuge in the Chilean delegation in Lima and go into exile. He traveled through Europe and returned to Peru in 1862, dedicating himself to the exercise of his profession. The following year he obtained his doctorate in Jurisprudence at the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, with a thesis on the autonomous nature of scientific institutions with respect to the State.
In 1865 he was elected dean of the Lima Bar Association and in such a condition he expressed his disagreement with the passive attitude of General Juan Antonio Pezet before the aggression of the Spanish Squadron of the Pacific, being for this reason banished again to Chile. He joined the ranks of the restorative army in Chincha headed by Colonel Mariano Ignacio Prado and, after the triumph of this movement, he was appointed Secretary of War and Navy (1865). Upon becoming aware of the manifest (April 27, 1866) made from the captain frigate Numancia by Admiral Castro Méndez Núñez, commander of the Spanish Squadron, threatening to bomb Callao within four days, accusing Peru of (having violated the treaty of January 27, 1865, Gálvez assumed the direction of the defense of that port and built a series of batteries, located to the north and south, placing the weak and reduced warships in the center.In the north defense was located the tower of Junín, the fort of Ayacucho and the famous cannon of the town; to the south, the fort of Santa Rosa, the tower of La Merced, which was revolving and armored, and the Zepita battery that faced the Mar Brava.May 2, 1866 , in the first hours of the combat, one of the Blackley guns of the Santa Rosa fort was disabled. The unfortunate thing was that a bomb from the Almansa , entered through one of the doors and came to explode in some packets of gunpowder, causing an immense explosion that destroyed the tower of La Merced, in which José Gálvez died heroically.