Algernon Winter Rose

Captain Algernon Winter Rose MC (1885-1918) was an architect of English country houses and gardens during the Edwardian period. Described as a man '...of original mind and unstinted devotion to his art', his flourishing career was curtailed by the First World War and his untimely death at the age of 33 during the flu epidemic of 1918.[1]

Early life

Algernon Winter Rose was the son of Thomas and Katherine Rose and was born in Abingdon Villas, Kensington. He was educated at Bedford Modern School and was articled to a local firm of architects, Messrs Usher and Anthony of Bedford. He received further training with Beddoe Rees and W.D. Caroe and at H.M. Office of Works. His early reputation was gained through the award of the Pugin Medal and a travelling studentship of the Architectural Association, and he established his own practice at Westminster in 1906.[2]

Designs

Rose's work appeared regularly in magazines such as The Builder and Country Life as well as in the architectural section of the exhibitions of the Royal Academy. His houses included Woolmer Wood on Marlow Common, Buckinghamshire,[3] and Marrowells in Weybridge, Surrey, designed for Sir Vernon Kell.[4] Upton House on Grange Road, Cambridge, designed by Rose in the style of the Arts and Crafts Movement has been described as one of the most attractive houses in the City.[5]

Rose was also sought after for his garden designs. He laid out the gardens at Eastlands, Walberswick, Suffolk for the portrait artist Arthur Dacres Rendall.[6] He also designed the gardens at Morton House and Goodrich House, both in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.[7]

War Service

Rose was commissioned in the Essex Yeomanry on the 21st October, 1914.[8] He fought at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and was awarded the Military Cross for action during the Battle of Arras in 1917.[9] He became Adjutant to his Regiment and in 1918 he transferred to Staff College at which point he was attached to the Royal Air Force.[10] After serving for almost the entirety of the War relatively unscathed he succumbed to influenza and died at Hastings on the 29th October, 1918.[11]

Personal life

Memorial to the Rose family, St. Andrew's Church, Walberswick

Algernon Rose was a very good rugby player and he captained Ealing from the 1907 season as well as playing representative matches for the Eastern Counties.[12] He married Winifred Foot Mitchell of Quendon Hall, Essex in 1913; they had two daughters.[13] Rose and his mother and father are commemorated by a memorial at St Andrew's Church, Walberswick. (pictured)

References

  1. Sir Lawrence Weaver, 'Small Country Houses of Today. The Country Life Library of Architecture' (London, 1919 edn), p. 210 {
  2. Antonia Brodie, 'Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, vol. II (L-Z), p. 503.
  3. Nikolaus Pevsner and Elizabeth Williamson, 'The Buildings of Britain: Buckinghamshire', (Harmondsworth, 1994 edn.), p. 464; Weaver, 'Small Country Houses of Today', p.210.
  4. "The Elmbridge Hundred".; 'The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, 1910: Catalogue',
  5. Sir Lawrence Weaver, 'Small Country Houses of Today:The Country Life Library of Architecture' (London, 1922 edn), pp.196-201, ; "University of Cambridge Accommodation".
  6. Sir Lawrence Weaver and Gertrude Jekyll, 'Gardens for Small Country Houses' (London, 1912), cited in "Walberswick Conseration Area Appraisal p. 28" (PDF).
  7. Deborah Spring, 'Hertfordshire Garden History, vol. II', (Hatfield, 2012)
  8. "London Gazette 20th October, 2014" (PDF).
  9. "Essex Yeomanry Officers Awarded Medals During World War One".
  10. "Flight Global Archive".
  11. Brodie, 'Directory of British Architects', p. 503.
  12. 'Flight Global Archive'
  13. "The County Families of the United Kingdom".
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