of Hardwick House.
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
Sir John Rose, 1st Baronet. His father moved from Scotland to Canada, where he was successively
Solicitor General,
Minister of Public Works and
Minister of Finance.[1]
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.[1] 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.[1]
In 1871 he married Eliza McClean, and they had four sons and one daughter.[1] 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 also the owner and breeder of the influential stallion
Cyllene. He was elected a member of the
Jockey Club in 1891.[1] In 1893 Rose took up yachting, competing in a number of competitive events and was a member of the
Royal Victoria Yacht Club.
Rose was created a baronet of "Hardwick House in the Parish of Whitchurch in the County of Oxford" on 19 July 1909.[2] He had completed the purchase of
Hardwick House shortly beforehand.[1] Rose is said to have been one of the models for "Toad" of Toad Hall in the
Wind in the Willows by
Kenneth Grahame and Grahame's illustrator
E. H. Shepherd used parts of Hardwick House in his drawings.[3]
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.[1] 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.]