It’s hard to not notice the de Rose plot as sadly the headstone has tumbled from its perch and lies in the path.
Frederick Richard de Rose was born in Bethnal Green, London in 1849. His father was a gunmaker and the de Rose family can be traced back to the seventeenth century in the east end of London. Frederick married Priscilla Grove in Adelaide in 1869, two months before the birth of their first child. Priscilla was born in Somerset, England. In 1870 they moved to Otahuhu where Frederick ran the ‘Otahuhu Bakery and General Store’. They moved to Wellington about 1878 and eventually settled in Majoribanks Street and also farmed at Taita.
Some snipets from the newspapers: in 1880 Frederick was elected an officer of the newly formed ‘Wellington Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Society’. In 1892 he was advertising for ‘a smart, respectable boy, able to drive and used to horses’.
In 1894 he sued K. Wylie for £20 for selling him a four year old horse that turned out to be a five year old, and won the suit. He was also president of the United Dairymen’s Association.
Frederick rented stable space behind the butcher’s shop of Mr Walter Hampton in Majoribanks Street. On 11th March 1904, Walter saw Frederick return in his trap and feed the horse. He then saw Frederick lying dead on the floor of the stables with blood coming from his head. Walter moved his body so that it lay a few feet clear of the horse in the stall. The constable who was summoned later testified he did not think there was any foul play in doing this.
On 12th March at the Wellington morgue a coroner’s inquest was held. Six ‘good and lawful men of the neighbourhood’ determined Frederick came to his death by a head fracture, the result of disease of the heart.
Priscilla continued their dairy operations at Taita until 1906 when she sold up. She continued to own land in the Hutt and the property at the corner of Majoribanks and Brougham Streets.
Priscilla died in 1912 at her home in Karaka Bay. The subsequent probate lists their surviving children as Frederick James, electrical engineer at Karaka Bay; Charles Turner, warehouseman of New York; John Henry, saddler of Perth; Reuben, sheepfarmer of Koneko; Sarah wife of Joseph Lynam of Karaka Bay.
Frederick junior died in 1916 in Egypt from sickness while serving in WWI and is buried at Ismailia War Memorial Cemetery.
Plot Ch Eng/R/62
1/2-019362-F
