I’m sure that I’m not the only one who sees beauty in some memorials in cemeteries. I have spent a great deal of my life wandering around cemeteries, especially our Kalgoorlie Cemetery. The view from the road is often as much as is seen, but if you venture through the gates, you will discover so many human stories about how people lived and died. We can find out who loved them and who they loved, the names of their children and perhaps their parents’ names. Some graves have simple memorials with just the name and the date; many, so very many, just have a cast-iron number marker, while others have magnificent memorials such as this one.
‘Edith Mary Victoria Rosman’ – From her grave, we can see that she was the beloved wife of Emanuel Horace Rosman, that her father’s name was William John Spicer and that she was born in Sandringham, Victoria. She died at the Great Boulder Mine lease on the 9th January 1901 from Peritonitis, she was only 22 years old. So very young, I wonder what she looked like?
Edith M V Rosman – Kalgoorlie Cemetery – Photo Danelle Warnock
As you will see, she has the symbol of an anchor with a rope wrapped around it. I have been told that this symbolises steadfastness, a symbol of safety of something to cling to, an anchoring influence. It is often used on the graves of mariners, but not in this case. It is not a common symbol for a young woman, I would think. Edith had married at the age of 21 years in Victoria, only 9 months before her death.
Edith’s parents, William and Jane Spicer, with one of her brothers, three sisters and her brother-in-law and niece, taken after she died in 1908 in Victoria – Image Ancestry.com
I wanted to know more about this poor young woman. A lady related to the Rosman family provided me with the following photograph, which depicts, among the men, her great-grandfather. He is seated 8th from the left in the back row. The photograph was taken for ‘The Chamber of Mines of Western Australia Inc, 10th Annual Meeting, Kalgoorlie, 28th March 1911. All she knew was that he had been married to Edith. She told me his name was Emanuel Horace Rosman.
Chamber of Mines 10th Annual Meeting, Kalgoorlie 1911 – Image Rosman family
Kalgoorlie Miner – Mining Notes, 10th January 1901
The wife of Mr Rosman of the Great Boulder Mine succumbed yesterday afternoon from an attack of peritonitis. She was a member of the Baptist Church in Boulder.
Emanuel Horace Rosman remarried Jane PASCOE in Boulder in 1904. The couple lived on the Ivanhoe Lease. They were to have one child, a daughter, Winnie, born in Fremantle, WA, in 1911. born on the At some point, the family moved to Perth, and Emanuel set up an accountancy business. Emanuel died in 1966, aged 89 years and is buried in the same grave in the Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth, with his wife Jane, who died on the 7th November 1931, aged 55. So he was a widower for 35 years.
Emanuel Rosman in later life – Image Ancestry.com
Moya Sharp
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A tragic yet strangely beautiful story. Many thanks again Moya.