Unidentified Soldiers In Frame

A frame containing the images of 18 undentified soldiers associated with Stockton.

Send-off and Welcome Home Committee

The community organised numerous events to send off and welcome home service people during WW1.

Stockton Soldiers' Memorial

The memorial lists over 150 men and women associated with Stockton who served in World War One.

Stockton World War One Memorials

Various memorials and honour boards and rolls containing the names of Stockton World War One service people.

05 August 2015

John William ROSE


John William ROSE is proving a bit of an exception to my usual problems. I can normally find alot of information about a persons early life and war service, and then strike problems with their post war life. However, John is the opposite!! I can't find anything about his life before he came to Australia. No birth record, nothing about his parents apart from names. Nothing about siblings, and nothing about how he got to Australia. Nothing about his marriage either. But I have quite a bit about his post war life. It's very frustrating.

I believe born in 1886 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England. The son of Henry ROSE and Annie. He married a Janet GILLIES. I think GILLIES is her maiden name, it appears as her middle name on electoral rolls. I believe he was in Australia by 1910. He states on his enlistment in 1916 that he'd been an apprentice at A. Gonninans and Co for five years. He was employed by Earp Bros at the time. So pre-1910 for coming to Australia. I can't find a birth record in NSW for his son, John either. So he may have been born in England. Can't find a record for him though.

After the war he returned and set up Rose's Garage. This was still in business until a couple of years ago and the site is actually one of major contention in the community at the moment!!