Captain Bernard Rose OBE – 4th County of London Yeomanry (The Sharpshooters)
Described in a national newspaper as “one of the giants of English choral music in the post-war era”, Bernard Rose was born in 1916. At 18 he beat the later Prime Minister Edward Heath to win an organ scholarship to St Catharine's College Cambridge, where he was also conductor of Cambridge University Musical Society. The following autumn, he progressed to be organist and tutor in music at The Queen’s College, Oxford. He joined the 4th City of London Yeomanry (The Sharpshooters), as a second lieutenant in North Africa.
He met his wife-to-be, Molly at a social gathering in October 1938 and they married on 23 December 1939 just before he was called-up. Molly, already a qualified pilot, joined the Air Transport Auxiliary when he left England: her story appears as “The Pilot”.