MARY ROSE SHALLOW

[ Rose Shallow and Amy Roddick in Egypt ]

G. Georgoulas, Amy Linda Redpath, The relationship of Amy Redpath and the family servant, Rose Shallow, was extraordinarily close. The women are shown here in Egypt

Mary Rose, or Rose as she was referred to in Amy Redpath’s diaries, was born April 24, 1870 in Fermeuse, Newfoundland, to fisherman John Shallow and Margaret Trainor. Rose came from a large Catholic family of at least eight children. She was a maid in the Redpath household at the time of the tragedy. Never marrying, Rose remained in service with Amy Redpath and accompanied her mistress to Europe even for her wedding and honeymoon, as well as to the United States. At some point, Rose’s sister Margaret Shallow Coleman joined Amy Redpath’s household staff as housekeeper. When Amy made a will in 1925 she bequeathed a yearly income of $1200 and all of her clothes to Rose and $600 per annum to Margaret, but as it turned out, Amy outlived Rose.

Rose was 73 when she died on April 11, 1943 at the Redpath family home at 1065 Sherbrooke Street. A funeral was held at St Patrick’s Church and Rose was buried at the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery. The following year, Amy had Rose disinterred and reburied in the Redpath family plot at the Mount Royal Cemetery. Rose’s life was commemorated on a plaque mounted on the Redpath monument which reads, “Mary Rose Shallow 1870-1943 Beloved Companion of Lady Roddick.”

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