“Personality and Color into Everything He Does”: Henry Rose (1899–1958)—Journalist, Celebrity, and the Forgotten Man of the Munich Disaster

This article analyzes the life, career, and death of British-Jewish sports journalist Henry Rose (1899–1958), killed in the Munich air disaster of 1958 alongside Manchester United football club officials, players, and several other passengers. Rose may well be the “forgotten” man of the disaster, yet his story illuminates a great deal about contemporary British sport, society, and culture. He was a celebrity of his time, primarily due to his being at the vanguard of a revolution in British sports reporting that saw a more sensationalist and opinionated style successfully imported from the United States into the British press. His achievements were all the more remarkable considering significant levels of anti-Semitism that existed in British society at that time. Rose’s death in 1958 and subsequent disappearance from popular memory, which contrasts starkly with the manner in which Munich has been more actively memorialized in other quarters, is also examined.