Background
He was born in Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand in 1901.
He was born in Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand in 1901.
He was a gifted middle-distance runner and came from a family of athletes, but lacked ambition and hardly ever trained. Disqualified by officials, he became an instant celebrity. He missed the 1924 Summer Olympics due to injury.
When American runner Lloyd Hahn, who had come sixth in the 1500 metres at the Olympics, visited Wellington, they had five one-mile races.
In the fourth race, he set a British Empire record. The New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association held national fund-raising events to be able to send Rose to Europe to compete there, and while he broke the French record over 3000 metres in 1926, he was then struck by influenza and missed all the important races.
Rose did not want to go to the 1928 Summer Olympics. He declared himself "unavailable".
He retired to his farm, did some more running for New Zealand, but finally retired in 1931 due to painful varicose veins.
Rose was a shy and private man who would later work in Inglewood. In the same year, he was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. He died on 4 March 1989 at Bell Block.
Rose made the New Zealand public interested in running, and inspired many others to take up athletics.