Ross was born in 1864, the third son of General Sir C. C. G. Ross.[2] His eldest brother, Ronald, would later become a medical researcher, and was eventually awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the transmission of malaria.[3]
He was educated at Stubbington, and, after serving as an officer in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment (later the Dorset Regiment), into which he was commissioned in January 1883,[4] joined the Norfolk Regiment (later the Royal Norfolk Regiment) as a lieutenant in November 1884.[5]
In 1904, after returning to the United Kingdom, he was posted to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as an instructor, and in 1905 was transferred to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst as the commander of a cadet company.[7] He remained at Sandhurst until January 1908, when he was posted to the Staff College as a deputy assistant adjutant general (DAAG) in succession to John Philip Du Cane;[2][8] he was well regarded as a lecturer by his students.[9]
On 14 November 1915, he was promoted to temporary major general[11] and appointed to command the 6th Division in the place of Walter Congreve, who had been promoted to command a corps. He commanded the division during the Battle of the Somme, where it was engaged in September and October 1916. He held command until 18 August 1917, when he was relieved.[12] Whilst commanding the division, he was made a Companion of the Bath.[2] He subsequently commanded the 69th (2nd East Anglian) Division in the UK.[13]
Later life
Ross wrote three books stemming from his academic work: Representative Government and War (1904); The Problem of National Defence (1907); and An Outline of the Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905 (1912). He also wrote fiction, publishing at five mystery novels: The Fly-By-Nights; The Haunted Seventh; Every Man's Hand; When the Devil Was Sick; and The Castle Fenham Case.[9]
He married Clara Marion Horton, the widow of an officer in the Royal Artillery, in 1905; they had no children.[2]
Becke, Major A. F. (1937). Order of Battle of Divisions Part 2B. The 2nd-Line Territorial Force Divisions (57th–69th) with The Home-Service Divisions (71st–73rd) and 74th and 75th Divisions. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN1-871167-00-0.