Charles Day Rose
Charles Day Rose (1847-1913)
1907 C. D. Rose M.P. Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) and the Motor Union [1]
1909 Biographical information and image at Automotor Journal 1909/01/09
MR. CHARLES DAY ROSE, M.P. [2]
To-day we have the pleasure of presenting to our readers a portrait of the Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, by Mr. Seymour Lucas, R.A.
When great pressure of work obliged the Hon. Arthur Stanley to vacate the Club chair, the Club and all its kindred bodies were more than happy to have lit upon so able, so painstaking, so enthusiastic, and so courteous a man as our subject to fill the void.
Mr. Rose was well acquainted with Club and Union work ere he came to the chair, and how well and how tactfully he has discharged the numerous and onerous duties of his dual position let the permanent officials of both bodies and their committees attest. In nothing more than in throwing oil upon the waters troubled by the Motor Union and the Automobile Association deadlock have his tact and his administrative and conciliatory capabilities been shown, and at the moment another opportunity yet presents itself to prove him, in the peaceful and satisfactory adjustment of differences between the Royal Automobile Club and its cast-off child, the Motor Union. That Mr. Rose will be as successful in the adjustment of this more serious crisis as he proved himself in regard to the A.A. and M.U. will be the earnest wish of all who are interested in the future welfare of automobilism.
The pastime of automobilism may be said to be his Benjamin, the sport of his maturer years, but behind him he has a great record connected with the Turf and yachting. In 1878 he commenced his connection with the Turf, and has owned great horses like Van Diemen's Land, Arcadia, Cyllene, St. Damien, and Ravensbury, while later, in quite another sphere, he flew his flag on Emerald and Penitent amongst small, and Satanita and Aurora amongst the crack, racing yachts of the world.
When quite a young man, and engaged in business in Canada, he held a snowshoe running record; and later, as Major in the Montreal Artillery, he aided in repelling the Fenian invasion of the Dominion in 1870. He was later again closely concerned with the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
He is a great tennis player, and has two courts — one at his Newmarket and the other at his Pangbourne home. In 1896 Mr. Rose challenged for the America Cup, but the friction existing at the time between yachting circles in this country and the States resulted in the withdrawal of the challenge.
Mr. Rose stood twice for the Newmarket Division of Cambridgeshire, and succeeded on the second attempt. He has not inaptly been lately referred to as the member for Horses and Horseless Carriages.
There is one circumstance in connection with Mr. Rose which cannot be forgotten by his countrymen, particularly that section for and with which he is at the present moment working so strenuously, and that is the fact of his four sons serving in the Army. The two eldest died gallantly fighting for their sovereign and country in South Africa, one serving in the Blues and the other in Thornycroft's M.I. We feel sure that the deepest sympathies of each and every member of the Club learning this sad news for the first time will go out to the tall, urbane, courteous gentleman who now presides over them in his patriotic but no less poignant loss. The two surviving sons are in the Blues and the 10th Hussars respectively. Truly Mr. Rose has given of his best to his country.
Sir Charles Day Rose, 1st Baronet, (23 August 1847 - 20 April 1913) was a British-Canadian businessman, race horse breeder, yachtsman and Liberal politician.
Born in Montreal, he was the second son of the Rt.Hon. Sir John Rose, KCMG. His father moved from Scotland to Canada, where he was successively Solicitor General, Minister of Public Works and Minister of Finance.
Rose was educated at Montreal High School and Rugby School. He was commissioned in the Montreal Garrison Artillery, and was involved in repelling the Fenian raid of 1870.
He subsequently entered business as a partner in an American bank based in the City of London, and part of the syndicate promoting the Canadian Pacific Railway.
In 1871 he married Eliza McClean, and they had four sons and one daughter. His two eldest sons both died in the Second Boer War.
In the late 1880s and early 1890s he was a leading horse race breeder, based at Newmarket, Suffolk. His most successful horse was Ravensbury, but it was overshadowed by Isinglass, owned by Harry McCalmont, Conservative MP for Newmarket.
He was elected a member of the Jockey Club in 1891.
In 1893 Rose took up yachting, competing in a number of competitive events and was a member of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club.
He was created a baronet of "Hardwick House in the Parish of Whitchurch in the County of Oxford" on 19 July 1909. He had completed the purchase of Hardwick House shortly beforehand.
At the 1900 general election he stood as Liberal candidate for the Newmarket constituency, but failed to unseat the sitting Conservative MP, and fellow horse breeder, Colonel Harry McCalmont.
In December 1902 McCalmont died suddenly, and Rose won the ensuing by-election held in January 1903.
He held the seat at the 1906 election, but was defeated in January 1910. He regained the seat when a further election was held in December of the same year.
Another of Sir Charles's interests was aviation, and he was president of the Royal Aero Club.
In April 1913 he was returning from a flight at Hendon Aerodrome by motor car when he died from a heart attack.
Obituary.[3]