Does any reader have any information on where Rose Kerr lived in Cowes Isle of Wight. I know of the following staement : - "Baden-Powell was a bachelor for a large part of his life. In December 1903, Baden-Powell met a young lady, Rose Denison in the South of France, when she was 21 and he was almost 47. She was intelligent, had studied music in Dresden, was multi-lingual and not given to covering her features in make-up. B-P was attracted to her and in the following year (1904), during Cowes week, he stayed with the Denison family and Rose at their rented property on the Isle of Wight, next to the Royal Yacht Squadron - something he was to do again for the next two years" I have checked the local newspaper reports and it just states that BP was staying with friends in Cowes. I have tried a number of ways to find the property name but to no avail. The latest was to see if the Guide Association had her address listed on her warrant application. Can anybody help? Census reports do not list Rose Kerr or the Denison family. Barry Groves

Hi Barry
Thanks for using the forum. Hopefully it will not be too long before I get the new SGHS website functioning.

I think you may possibly be putting too much emphasis on the word 'home'. I do think Rose Dennison or her father and stepmother did live on the Isle of Wight - but was there every Cowes week. Her father was a very rich man - and may well have been a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and that might be an avenue to explore?

In your piece that quote (from Jeal?) he says it was a rented property. I would think it would only be rented for the 'season' or even just Cowes week- which would explain why you can't find it.

Jeal tries to build up romantic interest between Rose and B-P as he does other females - which is a bit bizare given he spends so much time trying to establish B-P's 'repressed homosexuality' (he has now dropped the word repressed as it is very non PC) But as you probably know Rose remained a life long friend to both Olave and B-P and was very important to Girl Guiding. She wrote the three books one on each of the Peace Cruises.

YiS

Colin

Sorry for not replying earlier. Traumatic period up to Christmas.

The "home" was only for the summer as they spent the rest of the year in the South of France. The Royal Yacht Squadron will not conduct any archive search unless I agree to pay up front at about £50 - £100 an hour. They also stated it would probably have his London residence as "home" not the Cowes one. I have tried all the sailing sources I can think of but to no avail. I hoped it would be in his diary entries for those periods. I have sent emails to some of Rose's descendents but received no replies??? I will keep trying! Barry