FALLEN AND WOUNDED.
KILLED IN ACTION.
Private D. W. Rosie.
News was privately received yesterday morning that Private .Donald William Rosie, son of the late James Rosie, of Oamaru, had been killed in action in France. Private Rosie was born in Oamaru, and attended the South School. He was employed in the Union Steamship Company's Office, and then as purser on several of the Company's vessels. He enlisted in Wellington with the Fifth Reinforcements, and was wounded in the Suvla Bay landing. He returned from England, and took part in the evacuation of the Peninsula. He went to France with the first body of New Zealanders. He was a keen cricketer and footballer, captaining the Union and Excelsior Clubs. Private Rosie was twenty-five years of age. A brother, Private L. Rosie, was wounded in France on September 15th, and another sailed with the Seventeenth Reinforcements, and two are in camp with the Nineteenths. North Otago Times, 7/10/1916.
Donald Rosie died at the height of his Battalion's (1st Wellington) effort in the Battle of the Somme. In its confusion, with ground taken and lost, it is no surprise that he has no known grave.
ROLL OF HONOR.
ROSIE. — On August 16th, killed in action in France, Private Robert Hunter Rosie, 16th Reinforcements, aged 22 years. -Oamaru Mail, 30/8/1917.
Mr George Rosie has received a cable stating that his brother Robert had been killed at the Front on the 16th instant. Robert Hunter Rosie left with the 16th Reinforcements, was wounded in the Messines battle, but on recovery must have rejoined his regiment, a letter received by his brother indicating that he intended going back. The deceased enlisted on completion of his apprenticeship with Mr George Procter, chemist, at the age of 21, and had been in France for a considerable time. This is the second of the five Rosie boys who went to the front to make the supreme sacrifice. Leonard, who was wounded, has rejoined his regiment, and Alexander, who was seriously wounded in the Messines battle, is still in hospital. Jim, who was also wounded, was convalescent at the date of the mail leaving London. It may be mentioned as an incident of the Messines battle that of 16 men in the trench in which Alexander Rosie was fighting, 10 were wounded by the explosion of a single shell. -Oamaru Mail, 30/8/1917.
Robert's Battalion (2nd Canterbury) was in the front line between battles but had a hard time during the period of his death. The Regiment's Official History describes it: "In the middle of the spell in the line the enemy's artillery fire slackened considerably on the 1st Battalion's area; but the 2nd Battalion had no respite, and it was the general opinion that this period in the line was the worst in its experience on an inactive front. For the twelve days in the line the casualties were one officer (Captain M. J. Morrison, MC) and thirty-three other ranks killed, one officer and one hundred and thirteen other ranks wounded, and thirty-five other ranks evacuated to hospital."
Oamaru Cemetery.
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