Agnes Rose-Soley
{{Short description|Scottish/Australian journalist and poet, 1847–1938}}
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|occupation = Journalist and poet
|caption = Rose-Soley in 1923
|name = Agnes Rose-Soley
|image = Agnes Rose-Soley.tif
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|pseudonym = Rose de Boheme
|birth_name = Agnes Rebecca Rose
|birth_date = {{Birth year|1847}}
|birth_place = Scotland
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1938|03|19|1847|df=y}}
|death_place = Milsons Point, New South Wales, Australia
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}}Agnes Rebecca Rose-Soley (1847 – 19 March 1938) was a Scottish-born Australian journalist and poet. She wrote under the pseudonyms Rose de Boheme and Pistachio{{Cite web |title=Rose-Soley, Agnes |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/rose_soley_agnes |access-date=2021-08-19 |website=The Dictionary of Sydney}} and sometimes with her husband as A. J. Rose-Soley.{{Cite news |date=8 May 1925 |title=New Australia Reminiscences |volume=33 |page=8 |newspaper=Murray Pioneer and Australian River Record |issue=19 |location=South Australia |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/109339608 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}}
Life
Rose-Soley was born Agnes Rebecca Rose in Scotland in 1847 and grew up in France.{{Cite web |last= |title=Agnes Rose-Soley |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A13893 |access-date=2021-08-19 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=22 March 1938 |title=Obituary. Madame Rose-Soley |page=9 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=31,269 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17450706 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}} She attended Newnham College, Cambridge, but unable to complete her studies due to ill health.{{Cite news |date=29 December 1910 |title=A. R. and J. F. Rose-Soley |page=21 |newspaper=The Worker |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145736853 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}}
Rose-Soley was theatre critic for the Illustrated Sydney News under the pseudonym Pistachio in 1889 and 1890.{{Cite news |date=27 June 1889 |title=Round About the Theatres |volume=XXVI |page=28 |newspaper=Illustrated Sydney News |issue=7 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63621751 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=20 August 2021}}{{Cite news |date=3 April 1890 |title=An Actor Angler |volume=XXVII |page=13 |newspaper=Illustrated Sydney News |issue=7 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63614837 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=20 August 2021}}
She was married in 1891 in Balmain to John Fisher Soley, a journalist and naval artillery volunteer who had earlier enlisted and served in the Sudan in 1885.{{Cite news |date=20 February 1885 |title=The Enrolment |page=7 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=14,635 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13580508 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}} It was his second marriage: he had divorced his first wife, Alice Helena Soley, for adultery in 1890, naming actor Stilling Duff as co-respondent.{{Cite news |date=29 May 1890 |title=Law Report |page=4 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=16,280 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13783894 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}}
The couple lived at Monad, a waterfront cottage in Clifton Street, East Balmain, where they entertained "all Bohemian Sydney" at "chic dinners".{{Cite news |date=24 October 1903 |title=Mainly About People |volume=6 |page=9 |newspaper=The Newsletter: an Australian Paper for Australian People |issue=58 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119436795 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=20 August 2021}}{{Cite web |title=1894 Part 2 - City Street Directory - Lon-Yur - Suburban Directory - Alexandria to Burwood |url=https://archives.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/1900096 |access-date=2021-08-19 |website=City of Sydney Archives |page=166}}
In 1893 she composed the lyrics and music for a "Marching Song" for the people who migrated to Paraguay that year to establish a settlement known as New Australia.{{Cite news |date=15 April 1893 |title=The Poetess of Paraguay – The New Australia |volume=XXX |page=4 |newspaper=Illustrated Sydney News |issue=15 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64033113 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}}
She and her husband went to Samoa, where they lived on Manono Island for two years.{{Cite news |date=19 February 1897 |title=Personal |page=2 |newspaper=Table Talk |issue=608 |location=Victoria, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145932893 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}} They then moved to San Francisco, where they wrote for newspapers for five years before spending a year in San Diego. After some time in London, they returned to Sydney in 1910.
Rose-Soley founded in 1914 the Sydney Lyceum Club, of which poet Mary Gilmore was a founder-member.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Sydney Lyceum Club (1914–1982) |url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE6487b.htm |access-date=2021-08-19 |website=The Australian Women's Register |language=en-gb}}{{Cite journal |last=de Boheme |first=Rose |date=1925-10-01 |title=The Sydney Lyceum Club |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-380634673/view?partId=nla.obj-380709607#page/n82/mode/1up |journal=The Home: An Australian Quarterly |volume=6 |issue=5 |pages=73 |via=Trove}} During World War I she wrote patriotic poems, some of which were printed as Stray Chords in 1923.{{Cite book |last=Rose-Soley |first=Madame |url=http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=SLV_VOYAGER1320725&vid=MAIN&lang=en_US&context=L |title=Stray Chords |publisher=Tyrrell's Limited |year=1923 |location=Sydney |pages=6}}
Over the years her poems appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sydney Mail, The Daily Telegraph and The Bulletin in Australia, and in London's Speaker and Lyceum Journal, San Francisco's Call and Overland Monthly, and Honolulu's Independent{{Cite book |last=Rose-Soley |first=Madame |url=https://viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/?entity=IE1667326&file=FL18192296&mode=browse |title=Stray Chords |publisher=Tyrrell's Limited |year=1923 |location=Sydney |pages=5}}
Death
Rose-Soley died on 19 March 1938 at Milsons Point, New South Wales,{{Cite news |date=21 March 1938 |title=Family Notices |page=12 |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=31,268 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17450650 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}} and was buried at the Northern Suburbs Cemetery. Her husband died intestate in Young, New South Wales, in March 1944.{{Cite news |date=15 September 1944 |title=RE the estates of the undermentioned deceased persons.— |page=1606 |newspaper=Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales |issue=91 |location=New South Wales, Australia |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225098219 |via=National Library of Australia |accessdate=19 August 2021}}
Works
- Manoupa, a novel (Digby, Long & Co., 1897)
- The Call of the Blood and other war verses (Sydney Lyceum Club, 1914)
- Stray Chords, poetry (Tyrrell's Limited, 1923)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1o9hq1f/SLV_VOYAGER1320725 Stray Chords] – digitised and available through the State Library of Victoria
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