Popular resident dies in Australia

Rosie Warren, pictured left, passed away last Friday, April 13,in an Australian hospital after a short illness. She was 91.

Her body is being flown back to England tomorrow after which her relatives will make arrangements for her funeral.

Rosie had been planning her trip to Australia for some time and was eager to meet her new granddaughter, five-month-old Rane.

She achieved this before she passed away peacefully in Swan District Hospital in the town of Midland happy from seeing her relatives Down Under.

Rosie was well known in the Arun district for her poetry and monologues. She read many of her monologues at the Windmill Theatre at Littlehampton for the annual Age Concern concerts.

She would often be seen as well riding in her burgundy electric scooter around her home in St Richard's Road holding up the traffic.

Rosie was born in Bournemouth in 1915 and spent most of her childhood in a children's hospital on Hayling Island.

She had a 4.5in shortening of her left leg and her task at school was to help the gardener prune his pot plants. This enabled her to gain a lot of knowledge about plants at a young age.

After she left school, she went into service as a nanny.

The outbreak of the Second World War saw her join the Land Army and led her to meet her future husband, Arthur, at a Naafi canteen for Royal Engineers where she was a volunteer worker.

They married in October 1942 at a village church near Petersfield wearing their uniforms.

Arthur was posted to the Far East for four years which left Rosie to bring up their first son, John, who was born in July 1943.

The couple also had Phillip (58), Maryann (56) and Jane (54).

Arthur passed away after a heart attack in 1988 and John also died after a long battle against lung and throat cancer.

The end of the war enabled Rosie to become a mobile gardener on Hayling Island where she used to tow a lawn mower behind her cycle.

She also did a lot of craft work and ran a shop on Hayling Island solely stocked by items which she and Arthur had made.

Rosie moved to Wester-gate in 1980.

She is survived by Phillip, Maryann and Jane as well as 12 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.