Rosamund Dashwood

Rosamund Margaret Dashwood (13 January 1924, Devonshire, England – 3 April 2007, Squamish, BC) was one of the top female masters (i.e. over 35) runners in Canadian history. Life Rosamund was born in 1924 to Major Arthur Paul Dashwood (younger son of Sir George Dashwood, 6th Baronet), an engineer who built the massive docks in Hong Kong Harbour, and his wife Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture, who was a celebrated author. Many of her mother's novels, under the pen name E. M. Delafield, are semi-autobiographical, and so the young daughter who appears can be taken to be based on Rosamund. Rosamund's only sibling, Lionel, died in 1940. Her mother died in 1943. During World War II, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and worked with the newly invented and still top secret radar. After the war, she attended Somerville College and met Leslie Truelove, whom she married. He became team manager for Amateur Athletic Association of England and supported Roger Bannister, the first man to break the four-minute mile. The couple had four sons: Paul, Simon, Patrick, and Michael. In 1960, the family emigrated to Canada and she lived the rest of her life there. Leslie became Associate Director of The Canadian Arthritis Society. Rosamund died on April 3, 2007, at the age of 83, in Squamish, British Columbia.