People on board

ROSE, John Alvord

John was born on 29th June 1888 in Littleton, Massachusetts. He studied at the high school in Concord, Mass. After leaving college, he was a chemist with the Arthur Little Analytical Chemists Co., and later became assistant state gas inspector. He was a corporal in the Massachusetts National Guard.

He enlisted as a corporal in the Chemical Warfare Service, Oct. 3, 1917, was promoted to Sergeant and to Sergeant first class, and his commission was pending at the time of his death. He was stationed for a while with the Ambulance Service at Allentown, Pennsylvania, but was sent overseas in January, 1918. He was one of ten men selected to go to London to supervise the manufacture of gas masks. While there he perfected the canister of the gas masks. He was returning from a furlough in Ireland on the RMS Leinster, when the ship was torpedoed on Oct. 10, 1918, and sunk. He was last seen struggling in the rough sea holding a girl above water. His body was recovered on October 11. He was buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery, Dublin, and later reinterred in Brookwood American Cemetery, Surrey, England.

Source: The War Record of Dartmouth College, 1917-1918