Thomas Kirke Rose, metallurgist, chemist and assayer studied at the Royal School of Mines, London, from 1883 to 1887 and qualified as an associate in metallurgy of that institution (ARSM). During 1888-1889 he was in the United States as chemist and assayer for the Colorado Gold and Silver Extraction Company in Denver. He returned to London in 1890 to take up an appointment as assistant assayer at the Royal Mint. The next year the University of London awarded him the degree Bachelor of Science (BSc) and in 1895 the degree Doctor of Science (DSc).
Rose was promoted to chemist and assayer at the Royal Mint in 1902, a position he held to his retirement in 1926. His first scientific paper, "Detection of gold in dilute solutions" was published in Chemical News in 1892 and was followed during the next eight years by eight further papers on the chemistry and metallurgy of gold, most of them published in the Journal of the Chemical Society. During that period he also wrote his most important book, The metallurgy of gold (London, 1894, 462 pp), of which the seventh edition appeared in 1937. A later work dealt with The precious metals comprising gold, silver and platinum (London, 1909, 295 pp).
Rose appears to have visited South Africa around 1905. In or just before that year he was elected an honorary member of the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa and from this time contributed three papers relating to metallurgical chemistry to the society's Journal: "On cupellation and parting in ore assaying" (1904/5, Vol. 5), "Notes on the assay of gold bullion" (1905/6, Vol. 6), and "The distribution of the gold produced on the Rand" (1908/9, Vol. 9). Years later, in 1918-1919, he reported to the South African government on the cost of erecting a gold refinery in South Africa.
Rose became a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1894. He was a member of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (London) in 1898, served on its council almost continuously to 1926, as its president for 1915/6, and received its gold medal in 1920 for his work on the metallurgy of gold. In 1916 he served as vice-president of the Institute of Metals. He also served as a member of council of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society (FCS). He was knighted in 1914, and was the author of the Report of the Tin and Tungsten Research Board (London, 1922), published by the British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.
In 1891 Rose married Jannifer (Jenny) Rundell, with whom he had a daughter. He was an ardent rock and mountain climber in Wales and Switzerland.
