A Moving Visit to Stonefall Cemetery, Young Walter’s Burial Place
By Mary Farley
In this guest post, Rosen House docent Mary Farley describes a recent visit to two historic sites in Yorkshire, England, that have great meaning for the Caramoor community. Walter Bigelow Rosen enlisted as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force and flew from an air base in Yorkshire with the Royal Air Force. He perished in 1944 after a crash that took the lives of six airmen. In honor of Veterans’ Day on November 11, Mary shares her experience of visiting young Walter Rosen’s grave and York Minster.
On October 19, 2025, a group of 30 clergy and lay people from St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Bedford embarked on a trip to England explore our shared Anglican heritage. When planning our itinerary, we realized we would be very near Stonefall Cemetery in Harrogate, young Walter Rosen’s final resting place, at the start of our trip in the city of York. Since many of us are familiar with young Walter’s story and its place in Caramoor’s history, we made arrangements with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to visit Walter’s grave. On the ride to the cemetery, I shared the description of Walter’s last flight, research shared with Rosen House docents as we prepared for last summer’s Focus Tour, Caramoor & World War II. We were met by our CWGC contact, Elizabeth, who led us to the grave and pointed out that the airmen who served and died with Walter were buried adjacent to him. After placing a bouquet of white Yorkshire roses on the grave, we said a prayer for Walter and all the young people who gave their lives for the cause. It was one of the highlights of our trip and sealed a bond between young Walter and his family’s parish church.
Unbeknownst to us before this trip, there is a Royal Air Force Memorial Book of Remembrance housed in the astronomical clock at York Minster cathedral. Our local guide, Kristie, mentioned it and wondered if Walter’s name appeared in it. She made a special trip to the Minster to look, and found it! I went back to the Minster and asked for the clock to be unlocked so I too could see Walter’s name, rank and squadron in the alphabetical list. It was inspirational to see young Walter among the 18,000 names of those lost during the war so lovingly memorialized.
We signed the Stonefall Cemetery visitor register. The Rev. John Zahl signed for St. Matthew’s and I signed on behalf of Caramoor.
The Rosen House team thanks Mary for making this connection to Rosen House history and for sharing her experience and her photos.