Rex Wallace Rose, Petty Officer Engine Room Artificer, RCNVR

For Posterity's Sake

A Royal Canadian Navy Historical Project

In memory of those who have Crossed the Bar

Rex Wallace Rose

Petty Officer, Engine Room Artificer, RCNVR

Born: 08 Jun 1922

Died: 18 Dec 2021, Peterborough, Ontario

ROSE, Rex Wallace - age 99, of Peterborough, Ontario passed away on Saturday, December 18, 2021. Rex was born June 8, 1922. A visitation with capacity limits for Rex will be held Tuesday, December 28, 2021 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM at Comstock-Kaye Life Celebration Centre, 356 Rubidge Street, Peterborough, Ontario. A memorial service with capacity limit or available by livestream. will occur Wednesday, December 29, 2021 at 1:00 PM at All Saints Anglican Church, 235 Rubidge Street, Peterborough, Ontario.

ROSE, Rex Wallace - (Canadian Navy Veteran of WWII); Peacefully at St. Joseph's at Fleming at the age of 99. Rex retired from Canadian General Electric, subsequently driving school buses for Trentway until regulations required that he retire. He participated in many service clubs including Brock Mission, Ontario Pioneer Camp, Far East Broadcasting, Anson House, Kiwanis Club and the Navy Club. Beloved husband of the late Mildred Campbell (1983) and Margaret Moeller (2016). Dear father of Elizabeth Maize (Wayne), Rex Rose (Mary Anne), Frances Gibson (David), Margaret Phillips (Ted), Patricia Hunt (Bob), Wendy Rose (Brad Smith), Mary Jane Short (Jamie), John Rose (Andrea), step-father of Lois Cook. Loving grandfather of Christy, Mandy, Jeffrey, Catherine, Jennifer, Laurie Lynn, Jonathan, Tyler, Rachel, Cameron, Serena, Jason, Alexander, Sam, Dusty, Angus, Matthew, Luke and step-grandfather of Russell. Also survived by 20 great grandchildren. Public Visitation with capacity limits will be held at the Comstock-Kaye Life Celebration Centre 356 Rubidge Street on Tuesday December 28th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. (Please go to https://signup.com/go/aihJJNz or call Comstock-Kaye's 705-745-4683 to book your time). The public funeral service with capacity limits will be held at ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CHURCH 235 Rubidge Street on Wednesday December 29th at 1:00 pm. (Please go to https://signup.com/go/DDRjcnA or call Comstock-Kaye's 705-745-4683 to confirm your attendance). Or join by Livestream (go to comstockkaye.com, scroll to Mr. Rose, select, scroll services, select "join by livestream"). Interment will be held at Little Lake Cemetery. In memory of Mr. Rose donations to OMF International Canada or All Saints Anglican Church would be appreciated. (The Peterborough Examiner 23 Dec 2021)

Rex's submission to The Memory Project: "We were down in the engine room and the steam goes through the, these turbines they call it, things that make the propellers go around. And then it goes into a condenser because they have to keep recycling that fresh water. So you have to look after that, you know, it’s getting cooled properly and then you’ve got the valve open to give the right speed. They ring down from the [ship’s] bridge how many revolutions they want, like 90 or 120 revolutions. And you adjust the throttles so that they give that speed. Like you don’t know what’s going on outside at all, whether it’s day or night or anything because obviously, you’re in the engine room. You’re on four hours and off eight. Like go 12:00 to 4:00, you’re off at four til midnight, and you go back on at midnight until 4:00 in the morning. And there are a group of you that do this. So there are two people on all the time, around the clock. You’re always down in the engine room and looking after the pumps and the throttles on the engines. And sending the signals through to the boiler room so that they know how many fires to put on and if it’s oil fire, to keep the pressure at the same. And I think it was 300 pounds per square inch, I think. In the stokehold, you get signals from the engine room but it’s pressurized, like there’s a big fan there and it’s blowing, sucking the air in from up on deck and blowing it down into the stokehold and then out through the boiler and up the stack. So you have to go down, you go down through one door and you shut that and then there’s like a trap door and you go down a ladder and seal that behind you. And then you have to keep enough pressure on there to keep that air going through the boilers. It sounds kind of difficult but really, they’ve been doing this for years and years and years. When you’re used to it, it’s not bad. VE-Day [Victory in Europe Day], we were in the British Channel, we were in the English Channel and they had the radio on, like they had shortwave radio. And it was piped, you know, wired through the ship so you could hear the news. We were told to go into Portsmouth in England to oil up. We go into Portsmouth and we hear all the big deal, wonderful celebrations. We could see the fireworks going off on the English coast as we were going down the channel and into Portsmouth. We oiled up and they sent us out for another five days on patrol, up and down the English Channel, waiting for the German U-boats to surrender. So our, my experience of VE Day was very low key. And we heard about the riot in Halifax, how they broke into the liquor store and everything and here we are, puttering along up and down the English Channel. We went back into the Foyle river, going up to Londonderry, and there were about four U-boats tied up down near the mouth of the Foyle river. They had surrendered and it was so, sort of, strange. Here, the [German] crews were still on them, the crews hadn’t been taken off. And here they are, standing watching us going up the river, you know. You think to yourself, I wonder if they ever had us in their periscope sight? Did we ever drop depth charges near those people? And yet, they were just, you know, fellows just like ourselves. Seems, I don’t know, it was a funny feeling, is the only way I can describe it."

Ships served in:

HMCS CATARAQUI - Enlisted 31 Mar 1943. Commenced active service 02 Jul 1943

HMCS NADEN - 20 Jul 1943 - 07 Nov 1943. New entry training as an ERA

HMCS NADEN II - 08 Nov 1943 - 15 Dec 1943. MTE Training.

HMCS GIVENCHY - 16 Dec 1943 - 17 Feb 1944. MTE Training.

HMCS NADEN - 18 Feb 1944 - 28 Feb 1944. MTE Training.

S.S. PRINCESS JOAN - Served in SS Princess Joan 20 Feb 1944 - 19 Apr 1944. For engine room training.

HMCS GIVENCHY - 20 Apr 1944 - 25 Apr 1944. Eng Supt

HMCS CHATHAM - 20 Apr 1944 - 10 Sep 1944 as an A/ERA 4c, RCNVR

HMCS KELOWNA - Served in KELOWNA 11 Sep 1944 - 28 Sep 1944 as an A/ERA 4c, RCNVR

HMCS NADEN - 20 Sep 1944 - 04 Oct 1944

HMCS PEREGRINE - 05 Oct 1944 - 25 Oct 1944