Rosa ‘Fighting Temeraire’

For many years the rose has been one of Jarnie’s most frequently returned to subjects. In particular she has been drawn to the David Austin English rose variety, ‘Fighting Temeraire’.

The story begins when Jarnie was small. On one of the walls of her family home, her father kept a print of the famous J.M.W. Turner painting, ‘The Fighting Temeraire’. It is an evocative painting, one which tells the story of the death of a sail powered fighting ship, alongside the new dawning of the steam age. The ship, ‘HMS Temeraire’ had been part of Admiral Lord Nelson’s Royal Naval fleet, sailing alongside the much celebrated ‘HMS Victory’ at the Battle of Trafalgar, and yet here she is being taken away by a steam driven tug set against a blazing sunset to be broken apart.

The David Austin rose variety was named after the painting, and as both Jarnie’s father and husband have served in the merchant navy and Royal Navy respectively, it feels like her own story is coming full circle. A story that is as yet unfinished.