Rose Manson

Over the course of the Second World War up to an estimated 1500 young American soldiers were buried in Ipswich, at the United States Armed Forces Military Cemetery. Today this area is named Manson Park, after Rose Manson, an Ipswich Mother of eight and wife to a local mechanic, who went out of her way to tend to the graves of the young men that had been buried so far from home.

In an interview with an American newspaper, Mrs Manson said:

“Near my home in 1942 the Americans started a military cemetery. I had previously been caring for 98 Australian soldiers’ graves, so it seemed quite natural that I do the same for the Americans.

“I used 2 to do 50 to 60 graves every Sunday, until the number grew to over 1,400, so I decided to place one bowl of flowers every night on the base of the flag pole as a memory to every mother’s son.

“I wrote to the next of kin describing the cemetery and the burial, for I had seen from my home, every boy and girl laid to rest in that little valley.

“It was such a peaceful spot and as I looked over the valley at the blue hills beyond, it reminded me of God’s healing acts.

“In order to purchase stamps I cleaned my local post office every morning, while the little ones were still in bed.”

She was also quoted in the Warwick Daily News as saying:

“I felt that it was my duty as a mother to put flowers on the graves of boys who died so far from their home.

One newspaper reports her as being in contact with 700 families in the US by 1846, but she was widely reported as maintaining up to 1500 individual graves within the cemetery. It wasn’t just leaving flowers on graves either, she personally wrote letters to each of the families of the soldiers who she cared for, which included offers for further assistance where she could give it. Rose fulfilled requests to travel to other significant sites, at one point travelling to Rockhampton to photograph a church for a family, and she had a room set aside in her house for families that wanted to visit their families graves in person. Those who visited included American families, but also families from across Australia.

She self-funded a lot of the work she did through her employment at the Post Office, but there were also times when she worked with organisations to ensure the families received items, such as the commemoration cards that were laid on each grave during a Memorial Day service at Manson Park in 1947. From these correspondences many long-term relationships were developed with families who appreciated her looking after their children and it is reported that in 1946 Mrs Manson sent 700 Mother’s Day cards to America. In exchange for her hard work Rose Manson was reported to get an average of 40 or 50 letters from the USA in each mail delivery; and 20 air mail letters a week, with a record of 285 letters in one mail delivery. The flowers that Rose took to the cemetery were grown in her own garden, and several families sent over seeds for her to grow.

It was the grateful families of the American servicemen who worked to organise a trip for Rose Manson so she could go to the US and meet the families she had been corresponding with for so long. Mrs. Dave Moretz’ son, Harry, had been one of the hundreds of graves that Rose had maintained over the years. When Rose mentioned to Mrs. Moretz in a letter that she would like to go to America to meet the families in person Mrs Moretz got in contact with her local American Legion post and, upon their suggestion, other families Rose Manson had been in contact. Together they were able to organise and fundraise a trip for Rose. The first suggested a trip of 12 months, but Mrs Manson did not want to be away from her family for that long; so the trip was ultimately shortened to 9 months.

She left Australia on the 4^th of August 1947 and arrived in San Francisco on the 25^th of August on board the Marine Phoenix. From there Rose visited 10 families in California, and spent time in every US state, all 48 of them at the time. She also took some time out during her trip to see her daughter in Honolulu, where she was living with her husband and planning a future living in the United States herself. On her return trip, also on the Marine Phoenix, she shared a cabin with 28 other people, 9 of which were babies.

Mrs Manson said she enjoyed her time in the country and gave interviews to newspapers on her return to Australia. In one issue of the Queensland Times, she spoke about the similarities and differences in Australian and American society. She discussed the cost of giving birth ($200-300 just for the hospital stay), the structure of schooling, the age of first employment, and the use of trailer parks to mitigate residential pressures. In another issue she discussed her experience of music in the US; pointing out that Jazz was popular with the youth but not otherwise throughout the population and praising the standard of music education and the skill of marching bands. She also discussed a radio programme she had participated in during her time in Chicago where people from each US state and other countries around the world came together to share stories and culture from their homes.

Rose Manson continued her volunteer work into at least the 1950s, where she sent reading materials to troops stationed overseas during the Korean War. She organised donations from the greater community, allowing people to drop their donations off at her home, or offering to organise a collection them where this was too difficult. She received letters of appreciation by those in charge of troops stationed in Malaya and Korea, as well as from a R.A.A.F. Corporal Peters, who was stationed in Singapore.