William Kinnaird Rose

William Kinnaird Rose (1845–1919), was the editor of the Brisbane Courier.

Rose was born in Glasgow in 1845, and educated at Kilmarnock and Ayr Schools and at Edinburgh University. Having embraced a journalistic career, Mr. Rose acted as special commissioner of the London Daily Telegraph in the conduct of an inquiry into the condition of the Scotch agricultural labourers, and had considerable experience as a special correspondent in various parts of Europe. He acted in this capacity for the Edinburgh Scotsman during the Turco-Russian war, and was for some time on the staff of General Skobeleff. He was several times wounded, being present at Plevna, the capture of the Gravitza redoubt, and most of the memorable scenes of that bloody and hotly contested war. Subsequently be returned to Edinburgh University for three years, and studied for the Bar with distinguished success. In 1879 he went as special commissioner to the East, to inquire into the condition of the Christian population in Roumelia, Macedonia, Albania and Armenia, and his report formed a subject of debate in both Houses of Parliament. On the advice of Sir Thomas McIlwraith, in 1884 he went to Queensland and was admitted to the local Bar in December of that year. Mr. Rose was one of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the Polynesian labour traffic in 1885, and formed an opinion decidedly adverse to this method of supplying labour to the Queensland sugar plantations as the system was then conducted. At the beginning of 1888 he became editor-in-chief of the Courier, which position he occupied until 1891, when he left for England. Amongst other incidents of Mr. Rose's career were his narrow escape from assassination in Albania, and his imprisonment in Rome on a charge of possessing forged notes which had been foisted upon him by a dealer in antiquities.

Publications

• The Modern Bayard: a Life of General Skobeleff
• A History of Agriculture in Scotland
• Political Ethnology
• A Popular Handbook on Forestry