Memorial for Edith Mary Victoria Rosman nee Spicer – Kalgoorlie Cemetery
I’m sure that I’m not the only one that sees the beauty of memorials in cemeteries. I have spent a great deal of time wandering around cemeteries, especially our own Kalgoorlie and Boulder Cemeteries. The view from the road is often as much as is seen by many, but if you venture through the gates you will discover many human stories about how people lived and died.
If we try, we can find out who loved them and who they loved. The names of their children and perhaps their parents, wives or husbands. Some graves have simple memorials with just the name and the date, many, so very many, just have a cast iron number marker. Others have a magnificent memorial such as the one above to
‘Edith Mary Victoria Rosman’.
From the inscription we can see that she was the beloved wife of E H Rosman, that her father’s name was W J Spicer and that she was born in Melbourne Victoria. She died at the Great Boulder Mine on the 9th January 1901 when she was only 22 years old. So much about someone we have never known. So very young, I wonder what she looked like?
As you will see she has the symbol of an anchor with rope wrapped around it. This reprersents, steadfastness, a symbol of safety, of something to cling to, an anchoring influence. It is often used on the graves of mariners but not in this case. It is an unusual symbol to be chosen for the grave of a young woman.
I wanted to know more about Edith when a lady sent, me the following photograph which depicts among the men present her Gt Grandfather, E H Rosman. He is seated 8th from the left in the back row. The photograph was taken for ‘The Chamber of Mines of Western Australia Inc, 10th Annual Meeting in Kalgoorlie on 28th march 1911’. All she knew is that he had been married to Edith. She told me his name was Emanuel Rosman.
Chamber of Mines 10th Annual Meeting, Kalgoorlie 1911
I first found Edith’s death in the online deaths records and then found her buried in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery. From this I learnt her full name and her maiden name and where she was born and that her father was W J Spicer. The online death records showed her parents as William and Jane nee Jackman Spicer and that she was born about 1878 in Sandhurst, Sandridge, Victoria
It was then to my trusty friend TROVE and it turned up the following article:
Kalgoorlie Miner – Mining Notes, 10th January 1901 The wife of Mr Rosman of the Great Boulder Mine succumbed yesterday afternoon from an attack of peritonitis. She was a member of the Baptist Church in Boulder.
I then searched the online marriage records and found that Emanuel Horace Rosman married for the second time to Jane PASCOE in Boulder in 1904.
At some point the family moved to Perth where Emanuel set up an accountancy business. I then checked the Metropolitan Cemetery Board Records and found the death of Emanuel who was 89 in 1966 and is buried in the same grave in the Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth with his second wife Jane who died on the 7th Nov 1931 aged 55. So he was a widower for 35yrs.
So from a walk in the cemetery (grave located with the help of the cemetery office), then a check of the free online Birth Deaths and Marriage Records. The the free ‘Trove’ index of Australian Newspapers. An amazing amount of information is able to be found about this family.
Emanuel Rosman – Ancestry.com
I had hope to find a photograph of her but with no luck. However I did find the following photograph of her husband taken in later life.
Moya Sharp
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