The Bridgewater Country Fire Service mourns the passing of one of our founding members, Charles Washington Rosewarne (AM).
Charlie Rosewarne was elected as the first Captain of the Bridgewater Brigade in 1951.
Charlie’s initial stint as Captain was between 1951 and 1956 and then he again took on the role between 1957 and 1963. He also took on the role of Brigade President between 1953 and 1954. These were his official management roles, but we know that he had a love of training and training others and so began the evolution in Emergency Fire Service and then Country Fire Service training.
Charlie went on to establish and run the Mt Lofty CFS Training Centre initially on land which is now beneath the South Eastern Freeway and then in the old Stirling East Primary School. As Captain of the Training Centre it was Charlies dream to build on the skills required for not only fighting bushfires, but the many other skills now required for fire-fighters. Charlie's entrepreneurial skills saw the growth of the Training Centre through donations that in the end were used to purchase the site of the current State Training Centre at Brukunga. Even when he got too old (his words) to conduct training, he organised a group of blokes to work behind the scenes. This group were naturally dubbed “Charlie's Angels” and together with Charlie they ensured that the training centre at Stirling East (old as it was) was always clean and well maintained.
On the 26th January 1978 Charlie was awarded the ‘Member of the Order of Australia’. The citation read “for community service particularly in the organisation & training of emergency fire services”.
On the 14th June 1978 he was awarded the ‘Nation Medal’ and subsequentley 3 further clasps to the medal.
In 2001 he received the International Year of Volunteer Medal and in 2010 the C.F.S. Service Medal for his 59 years of service to the organisation.
The communities of the Adelaide Hills probably do not realise that Charlie Rosewarne is the man who made their communities as safe as they are today because of his pro-active approach in getting training organised and delivered to many, many fire fighters for well over 25 years.
The Bridgewater CFS members proudly remember Charlie and we pass on our sincere condolences to his family. Charlie passed away peacefully on Thursday 31st March 2011, now re-united with his beloved wife, Ruth.
Rest in peace mate!
