Mural on side of town hall to salute war hero Donald

The planned Donald Rose mural on the side of Ilkeston Town Hall. Image from Erewash Borough Council.

A D-Day hero who was Britain’s oldest man when he died last year aged 110 is to have his wartime courage memorialised in a huge permanent artwork – on the wall of Ilkeston Town Hall.

Brave Donald Rose was wounded during the Normandy landings but shrugged off the bullet to his leg to fight his way into Germany, where he helped to liberate the Nazi death camp at Belsen.

He was the country’s oldest World War Two veteran and a much-loved local celebrity when he passed away last summer in the Ilkeston care home where he lived. The motorcycle fan’s funeral cortege was escorted by more than 100 bikers as hundreds lined the town’s streets.

Top street artist John Culshaw – famed for a Liverpool mural honouring Nelson Mandela – is to help create a stunning salute to the old soldier that will grace Erewash Borough Council’s HQ on the Market Place.

The town hall is grade II listed so a wall has been earmarked on a modern finance block that extends behind it beside bus stops along Wharncliffe Road. The authority gave itself the go-ahead at a planning meeting on Wednesday 23 September.

John will be collaborating with Neil Keating – a fellow street artist who has worked on a string of murals across the borough. The pair’s design is themed around remembrance – with twin portraits of Donald depicting him as a smiling centenarian and as a fresh-faced young private. World War Two fighter planes fly over a warship as a soldier poignantly looks into the sunset.

Cllr Mark Alfrey, who is Erewash’s Lead Member for Environment, said the tribute is part of a £100,000 mission to enhance the borough’s urban environment with public art. Money to create murals has been allocated from a new £6.5million Erewash Investment Fund that has been set up by the council to boost the area in all kinds of ways – including getting high streets thriving again. Shops can get funding to improve their signage and storefronts. Meanwhile council car parks have been made free to use at weekends.

Cllr Alfrey said: “Murals have been appearing across the borough, including in Kirk Hallam and Petersham. Earlier this month Neil collaborated with another talented artist – a local 23-year-old named Elle Koziupa – to transform the wall of a canalside building near Long Eaton’s new West Park Bridge. That mural pays homage to the town’s lace industry and proved an instant hit. The superb tribute to Donald promises to be just as inspirational.”

The planning committee was told in a report: “While the theme of the artwork is melancholic and thought-provoking, the colour scheme is warm and comforting – awakening feelings of hope and optimism.”

Donald, originally from Surrey, was 25 when he joined the Queen’s Royal Regiment in 1940. He went on to serve as a Desert Rat with the 7th Armoured Division in North Africa – helping to rout Erwin Rommel. In 1943 he took part in the Allied invasion of Italy.

His leg wound during the following year’s Normandy landings was thankfully not serious and he was swiftly able to return to active duty. Donald and his battalion fought their way through France, Belgium and the Netherlands to reach Germany. In April 1945 he was among the first Allied troops to enter the death camp there at Bergen-Belsen.

Donald’s twilight years were spent at Ilkeston’s Canal Vue care home. Opera star Alfie Boe made a video call to sing Happy Birthday when the veteran turned 110. Just months before Donald’s death in July 2025 a town hall delegation visited to award him the freedom of the borough.

David Rose – his only child – said at the time: “I’m extremely proud of him. You start telling his story and you get a lump in the throat.” Donald insisted modestly: “I didn’t do anything that anybody else wouldn’t have done.” Council flags flew at half mast to mark his passing. The authority’s leader James Dawson said: “Erewash was privileged to count him as a resident.”