Anthony Rosenroll

Anthony Sigwart de Rosenroll (December 4, 1857 – May 8, 1945) was a politician and businessman in the Canadian province of Alberta. Born in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to a family of noble Swiss heritage, he spent his early adulthood in the British colonies of Australia and New Zealand before settling in Canada in 1895. He became a prominent resident of Wetaskiwin, and was acclaimed as its representative to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in 1898 and 1902. In Alberta's first provincial election, he was elected as a Liberal to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, where he remained until 1909. He remained active in business until 1940, and died in 1945 of pneumonia.

Early life De Rosenroll was born December 4, 1857, in Castellamare, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, to Rudolph and Margaret de Rosenroll. He was descended from Swiss nobility on his father's side, though his line had been absent from Switzerland since 1806. When Anthony was three years old, his father was killed at Palermo while fighting for Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Expedition of the Thousand; his family took refuge in Malta for much of the rest of the rebellion.

Returning to Italy, de Rosenroll was taught by tutors in Naples, and ultimately graduated from the University of Naples in civil engineering. He spent several years working for the British colonial governments in what is now Australia and New Zealand in this capacity, before voyaging to the United States to visit his sister. When Alberta became a province in 1905, de Rosenroll ran in its first election in Wetaskiwin as the Liberal candidate. He defeated Conservative R.W. Angus handily. When the government introduced a bill increasing the size of the legislature from sixteen seats to 41, de Rosenroll argued that not enough of the new seats were going to rural regions. He did not seek re-election in the 1909 election.

In 1909 he was endorsed by the German-speaking population of Strathcona as the Liberal candidate for the House of Commons of Canada in an upcoming by-election. Whether he declined their entreaties or was defeated is unclear, but the nominated Liberal candidate was James McCrie Douglas, who was elected by acclamation.

In his later life, de Rosenroll devoted himself to writing a family history, completed in 1936. He retired from his business activities in 1940, leaving them to his son Edgar. He subsequently moved to Moose Jaw, where his son Arthur lived. In 1944 he contracted pneumonia, and in 1945 he died in Moose Jaw at the age of 87. He is buried in a Wetaskiwin cemetery.

Electoral record