Miniature rosary beads : Private K R Rose, 2/13 Battalion

Miniature set of rosary beads made from chain and small mauve glass beads. One bead is missing where the chain has broken between decades. Two of the five decades have only nine beads, rather than ten. The chain is joined at the end by a medallion with the image of the Virgin Mary on one side and a 'M' intertwined with a cross on the other. A short length of chain and a crucifix is suspended from the medallion.

Associated with the service of NX45126 Private Kenneth Russell Rose. Rose was born in September 1922 and enlisted on 19 September 1941. He served briefly in Malaya as a general reinforcement from 10 January 1942 and appears to have escaped from Singapore to Java when the city fell to the Japanese on 15 February. He was evacuated from Batavia on 23 February, aboard SS Edendale, arriving in Fremantle, WA on 5 March. In August 1942 he was posted to the Middle East where he was assigned to 2/13 battalion, returning to Australia on 26 January 1943. After training in Queensland the battalion arrived in New Guinea, at Milne Bay, in July 1943. Rose received a bullet wound to the right shoulder, eyelid and brow on 22 September 1943 during the Scarlet Beach landings to take Finschhafen. He was evacuated to Australia, where he also developed malaria. Rose saw no further service outside Australia, and was discharged medically unfit on 31 May 1945. He had married Susan May Frances MacKay on 4 November 1944.