Born at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, on July 18th, 1847, the son of William Rose (qv) and nephew of Sir Philip Rose. He came of a race of surgeons, and, as his biographer, Sir John Cockburn, KCMG, says - "He affords a striking instance of the coincidence of an hereditary faculty with circumstances peculiarly favourable to its development.... He was nursed in an atmosphere of the healing art. Long before he entered as a medical student at King's College he had learnt from his father, the leading surgeon in High Wycombe, something more than the rudiments of the profession, with the result that having the end in view, he was able to appreciate more thoroughly than the younger and less experienced students the meaning and bearing of the teaching facilities which a great medical school affords. Endowed by nature with an exquisite sense of touch and manual skill, he lost no opportunity of cultivating a wonderful dexterity in manipulation, which made him a most expert operator. "As a boy he was the fortunate possessor of a fine turning lathe and well-equipped workshop. Here he spent most of his leisure, and served his appren¬ticeship in handicraft. The hand that for the first time touched the instruments of surgery was already ripe with experience in handling all manner of tools. "William Rose was not one who required to practise with the saw on the human femur. He was possessed of prodigious strength. It was one of the sights of student days to see him with one hand grasp a heavy chair by the top rail, extend it at arm's length, and by sheer power of wrist raise it to a horizontal position. But this strength was tempered and regulated with a wonderful tactile sensibility. His touch conveyed a sense of restrained power, which commanded confidence and rallied the recuperative power of a patient. There was a veritable virtue in the laying-on of his hands." William Rose entered the Medical School of King's College Hospital in his twentieth year and was a resident pupil with Henry Power (qv) during his student life. After taking the Fellowship in 1874 he acted for a time as House Physician at the Brompton Hospital. Early in his career he attracted Sir William Fergusson's (qv) attention, and assisted that great operator in his private practice, taking rooms, by his advice, in Old Cavendish Street instead of carrying on the family practice at High Wycombe as his father had hoped. Having been successively House Surgeon and Surgical Registrar to King's College Hospital, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon in 1876, became full Surgeon in 1885, and Consulting Surgeon in 1902. During the five-and-twenty years that Rose served on the staff of King's College Hospital he built up for himself a great reputation as a practical surgeon, while his name became familiar to many generations of students because of his participation in the authorship of a most popular textbook on surgery. From being Fergusson's dresser he rose to be his colleague, participating with the master in all his great operations. A colleague, once his dresser, has described Rose's marvellous dexterity, his skill with his instruments, and his jealous care of them. To an onlooker who knew how instruments should be used it was a great pleasure to watch Rose operating. Though he had large and apparently clumsy fingers, they were in reality extraordinarily dexterous. To see his fingers working inside a small mouth when operating upon a cleft palate, or to watch him using the finest catgut in the finest curved needle in a hare-lip operation, was to feel that one had met a master surgeon - one in whom co-ordination between brain and finger-tips was absolutely perfect. His kindness to patients under his care was seen best by the house surgeons in charge of his beds or by the ward-sisters, for he was not a man to make any display of this side of his character. He would often come to the hospital at the dinner hour or at teatime in order to see for himself how the patients fared. It was no good telling Rose that such-and-such a patient took his food well, for to say this was to create a suspicion in his mind that there was something wrong, and nothing would satisfy him but to see for himself. This was a little point upon which he was often misunderstood. He would seem to disbelieve what was told him by house surgeons and dressers, sisters and nurses. In reality, he was not so much testing their accuracy as their judgement; he was training them to be sound in making reports, and in the value of evidence which lay before their eyes. Rose was devoted to animals, and his love of horses was well known. He was a first-rate whip - "A coach team or tandem were as a plastic mass in his hands." He was constantly seen driving his four-in-hand, and is said to have caused a window to be made at the end of his hall, through which he could look at his beloved horses in their presumably very clean stable. He shot well and his hall was adorned with antlered trophies. He was a musician and played the drum admirably! His hospitality was boundless, and his dinners to his dressers were grand events in these young men's lives. He had a keen sense of humour: told a story well, and his laugh, which could be heard in the next street, was infectious. His common sense often stood him in good stead. As Surgeon to the Great Eastern and London, Brighton & South Coast Railways he was an expert witness in railway cases, and often saved the Companies from being imposed upon in Maims for damages. Asked, for instance, to report on a case of alleged spinal concussion, he found the patient in bed and apparently bedridden. Rose had been kept waiting a long time before being admitted to see the patient, but was able to diagnose the case as one of flagrant malingering, when on putting his hand into one of the man's boots under the bed he found it was warm! In 1880 he married Marian, youngest daughter of Mr Robert Clark, solicitor, but had no children. A portrait of Professor Rose accompanies his biography in the *Lancet*. His London address was 17 Harley Street, W, and his country house was at Penn, near High Wycombe. Here he dispensed hospitality and was much beloved by his poorer neighbours, whom he charitably benefited by his surgical skill and experience. He died on May 29th, 1910, and at the time of his death was Emeritus Professor at King's College, as well as Member of its Council and Hon Fellow, these honours having been conferred on him at his retirement from the Professorship of Surgery in 1902, when, as before mentioned, he was made Consulting Surgeon at King's College Hospital. He was also Consulting Surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, and to the Stanhope Street Dispensary, the London, Brighton and South Coast and the Great Eastern Railway Companies, St John's Hospital, Twickenham, the High Wycombe Cottage Hospital, and the Eagle Insurance Company. He was at one time Consulting Surgeon to the Westminster General Dispensary and Senior Surgeon to the Actors'Association. Publications: *A Manual of Surgery for Students and Practitioners* (with ALBERT CARLESS, FRCS), 12mo, London, 1898; 12th ed, 8vo, plates and illustrations, London, 1927. Professor Rose's literary reputation is securely founded on this classic. It was the best text-book of surgery in the English language for students not aiming at the highest examinations, and was frequently republished in New York. "Case of Double Hare-lip in Man aged 30." - *Brit Med Jour*, 1883, i, 202. "Recurrent Aneurism of the Superficial Femoral Artery after Ligature of the External Iliac, treated by Excision of the Sac," 8vo, London, 1885; reprinted from *Med Soc Proc*, 1884, vii, 75. "Gunshot Wound of Knee-Joint." - *Med Soc Proc*, 1888, xi, 355. "Wound of Median Nerve; Suture." - *Ibid*, 1889, xii, 300. "Severe Injury of the Wrist-joint, with Division of Nerves, Vessels and Tendons, treated by Conservative Surgery," 8vo, London, 1887; reprinted from *Med Soc Proc*, 1887, x, 348. "Removal of the Gasserian Ganglion for Severe Neuralgia." - *Lancet*, 1890, ii, 914. (This operation was done by the maxillary route, which was afterwards superseded by the Hartley-Krause route.) *On Harelip and Cleft Palate*, 8vo, illustrated, London, 1891. "General Surgery."-*Year Book of Treatment*, 1895-6. "A Few Details in the Operative Treatment of Inguinal Hernia," 12mo, London, 1892; reprinted from *Med Press and Circ*, 1891, lii, 546, etc. *The Surgical Treatment of Neuralgia of the Fifth Nerve* (*Tic Douloureux*), 8vo, London, 1892. All these papers "display him as the careful, skilful, practical surgeon".