Kenneth Vivian Rose (15 November 1924 – 28 January 2014) was a journalist and royal biographer in the United Kingdom. The son of Ada and Jacob Rosenwige, a Bradford Jewish surgeon, Rose was educated at

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 Census was 2,707, increasing to 2,8 ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at ...

. He served in the Welsh Guards 1943–6 and was attached to

Phantom Phantom may refer to: * Spirit (animating force), the vital principle or animating force within all living things ** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living Aircraft * Boeing Phantom Ray, a stealthy unm ...

, 1945. He did a brief spell of teaching as an Assistant Master at

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

, 1948. His journalistic career began when he joined the Editorial Staff of the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'', a position he held from 1952 to 1960. He founded and wrote the Albany Column, 1961–97, for the ''

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', ...

''. Rose was an award-winning writer, having won the prestigious

Whitbread Book Award The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

in the biography category in 1983 for his book, ''

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

''. He shared that award with

Victoria Glendinning Victoria Glendinning (''née'' Seebohm; born 23 April 1937) is a British biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist. She is an Honorary Vice-President of English PEN and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. She won the James Tait ...

, who won for her book ''Vita''. He was appointed CBE in the

1997 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1997 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countri ...

. In April 2005, days before the wedding of

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

and

Camilla Parker-Bowles Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. She became queen consort on 8 September 2022, upon the acc ...

, a British tabloid published that the couple were related, as ninth cousins, by way of the 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Rose said that, although the apparent familiarity between the two was not well established, a family connection was "perfectly factible". Two well-regarded volumes of Rose's journals edited by

DR Thorpe D. R. (Richard) Thorpe (born 1943) is a historian and biographer who has written biographies of three British Prime Ministers of the mid 20th century, Sir Anthony Eden, Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Harold Macmillan. Education and academic career T ...

were published in 2018 and 2019. A review in ''The Spectator'' by distinguished biographer

Philip Ziegler Philip Sandeman Ziegler (born 24 December 1929) is a British biographer and historian. Background Born in Ringwood, Hampshire, Ziegler was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, and went with the school when it merged with Summer Field ...

said: 'He was, of course, a snob — nobody could write a social column in the ''Sunday Telegraph'' for more than 50 years without some snobbish instincts — but he was an intelligent one, singularly well-informed, and capable from time to time of administering a sharp bite to the noble hands that fed him his material. It might reasonably be said that his contribution to social history is limited in its parameters, but it is a real contribution for all that. It is also great fun to read'.

Selected works

* ''Superior Person; a portrait of Curzon and his circle in late Victorian England'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1969) * ''The Later Cecils'' (1975) * ''William Harvey : a monograph'' (1978) * ''King George V'' (1983), awarded the

Wolfson History Prize The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works ...

* ''Who’s Who in the Royal House of Windsor'' (1985) * ''Kings, Queens & Courtiers : intimate portraits of the Royal House of Windsor from its foundation to the present day'' (1985) * ''Elusive Rothschild: The Life of Victor, Third Baron'' (2003) * ''Who's In, Who's Out. The Journals of Kenneth Rose''. Vol. 1, 1944–1979. Edited by D. R. Thorpe (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2018) * ''Who Wins, Who Loses. The Journals of Kenneth Rose''. Vol. 2, 1979–2014. Edited by D. R. Thorpe (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2019)

References

External links

Whitbread awards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Kenneth 1924 births 2014 deaths British biographers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Alumni of New College, Oxford