William John Rose fonds, 1885-1950

MSS SC 24

28 cm of textual records

William John Rose was Professor of Polish Literature and History at the University of London. He was born in Minnedosa, Manitoba in 1885. He entered Wesley College in 1901 and graduated with a B.A. in 1905. Upon graduation he spent three years at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a Manitoba Rhodes Scholar before returning to Wesley College as lecturer in classics. After the outbreak of World War I he and his wife spent four years as prisoners of war in Austrian Silesia, but he was able to continue studying sources in Polish literature from the University of Kracow. He returned to North America in 1927 and from 1927 to 1936 served as assistant professor of sociology at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. He returned to London in 1939 where he became the director of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London. Rose retired in 1950 to Vancouver, British Columbia. His numerous writings are related to his long interest in Poland.

Transferred to the Archives & Special Collections by Prof. Dave Arnason, 1978

The collection contains an unpublished manuscript of Helen of Wheatville: A Tale of Winnipeg by Wes Turner, Rose's pseudonym, and biographical material on George John Blewett, a Canadian philosopher

Open to all researchers

No further accruals are expected