Herbert Jennings Rose

05 May 1883, Orillia, Ontario, Canada - 31 July 1961, St Andrews, Scotland

Rose was born in Orillia, Ontario, Canada, to a family of Scottish descent. He attended McGill University, Montréal, where he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, with which he went on to Balliol College, Oxford.

Rose was active in Oxford chess circles while at the university. He played in four successive Oxford v Cambridge matches between 1905 and 1908, drawing with J.A. Horrocks, winning against K.D. Singh, drawing with L. Illingworth and defeating H. Lob, in that order.

In 1907 he played Board 1 for the combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team against a combined Amercian Universities team from Harvard, Yale and Columbia in a cable match. He should have won against his up-and-coming opponent.

Capablanca, according to Hooper and Brandreth in The Unknown Capablanca,

'did not care for the slow pace of telegraph matches, and he played only two. For this game he turned up late, moved quickly, embarked on a superficial attack, and soon had a lost position. Rose could, for instance, have won a piece by 32...Qc4 insted of ...Bxh4.

Capablanca - H.J. Rose 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. d3 Nf6 5. 0-0 fxe4 6. dxe4 d6 7. Nc3 Be7 8. h3 O-O 9. Ng5 Qe8 10. f4 h6 11. Bc4+ Kh8 12. Ne6 Bxe6 13. Bxe6 Nd4 14. Bb3 Nxb3 15. axb3 Qc6 16. Qe2 exf4 17. Bxf4 a6 18. Rae1 Rae8 19. Qd3 Nd7 20. Nd5 Nc5 21. Qc3 Ne6 22. Qd2 Nxf4 23. Nxf4 Qc5+ 24. Kh1 Bg5 25. Ng6+ Kg8 26. Qd3 Rxf1+ 27. Rxf1 Bf6 28. e5 dxe5 29. b4 Qc6 30. Qb3+ Qe6 31. Qg3 Bg5 32. Nh4 Bxh4 33. Qxh4 e4 34. Re1 Qe7 35. Qxe7 Rxe7 36. Kg1 Kf7 37. Kf2 Kf6 38. Ke3 Ke5 39. Rd1 h5 40. Rd4 Kf5 41. Rd5+ Kg6 42. Rd4 1/2-1/2

For four years he was a fellow and tutor of Exeter College. In 1911 he married Eliza Plimsoll, elder daughter of Samuel Plimsoll, the British social reformer who advocated improved safety standards at sea.

From 1919 - 1927 Rose was Professor of Latin at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and from 1927 - 1953 he was Professor of Greek at the University of St Andrews. Also during this time in 1934 he became a fellow of the British Academy.

During his time in St Andrews Rose maintained his interest in chess by playing correspondence games and occasionally communicating with the two British chess periodicals, the British Chess Magazine and Chess. His letters were sometimes about the history of the game, his communication usually inspired by another reader's letter, and sometimes his writings were to offer an opinion on some 'obscure' literary reference to chess. These letters are marked by deep scholarship, but also indicate someone with a great sense of humour. He also occasionally entered chess competitions in the Observer.

For further information about Professor Rose see the Wikipedia entry.

Alan McGowan
Historian, Chess Scotland