Painter, illustrator, writer and teacher, born in Hong Kong, his mother from that area, his father English. When the Japanese invaded, his father was taken prisoner and he and his mother and sister were interned in Stanley Camp. Gerald was there, where his mother died, for five years. After the war he moved to Lowestoft, where he attended the Art School, then was a student at the Royal Academy Schools under Henry Rushbury, 1955–9, visiting lecturers including John Minton, Stanley Spencer and Carel Weight. While still a student, Rose married a primary schoolteacher named Elizabeth Pretty and with her produced the children’s book How St Francis Tamed the Wolf. The illustrator André François and Oriental woodcuts influenced Rose’s illustrative style, which continued with a huge and diverse range of books by him, his wife and other authors, including Lewis Carroll, Ted Hughes, James Joyce and Edward Lear.