View source for Roderick Ross

{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix   = 
| name          = Roderick Ross
| honorific_suffix   = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CVO|CBE|KPM}}
| image         = File:Ramsgate Chief Constable Roderick Ross.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = Ross as Chief Constable of Ramsgate
| office        = [[Chief Constable]] of [[Edinburgh City Police]]
| term_start    = 1900
| term_end      = 1935
| office2        = [[Chief Constable]] of [[Bradford City Police]]
| term_start2    = 1898
| term_end2      = 1900
| office3        = [[Chief Constable]] of [[Ramsgate Borough Police]]
| term_start3    = 1894
| term_end3      = 1898
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1865|05|24|df=yes}}
| birth_place   = [[West Helmsdale]], [[Kildonan, Sutherland|Kildonan]], [[Sutherland]], Scotland
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1943|03|06|1865|05|24|df=yes}}
| death_place   = 19 Great King Street, [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| nationality   = 
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = 
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
}}
'''Roderick Ross''' [[Royal Victorian Order|CVO]] [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]] [[Queen's Police Medal|KPM]] (24 May 1865 – 6 March 1943) was [[Chief Constable]] of [[Edinburgh City Police]] from 1900 to 1935.

Ross was born in [[West Helmsdale]] in the parish of [[Kildonan, Sutherland|Kildonan]], Sutherland, the son of a [[crofter]]. His namesake, his grandfather, a [[Chelsea Pensioner]], had been evicted from Kildonan during the [[Highland Clearances]].

Aged 16 he was apprenticed to a Helmsdale tailor, but soon moved to Edinburgh where he was employed by [[Andrew McDonald (clothier)|Sir Andrew McDonald]], an eminent clothier and later Lord Provost from 1894 to 1897.

On coming of age at 21 he joined the police. Firstly, the [[Linlithgow Burgh Police]],<ref>Gordon Smith, ''Bradford's Police''</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Archibald |first1=T. W. |title=A history of the Lothian and Borders police |date=1990 |publisher=T.W. Archibald |isbn=0951611909|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tedgAAAACAAJ}}</ref> before moving after a year to [[Northampton Borough Police|Northampton]] and then [[Bacup Borough Police|Bacup]], where he met [[Robert Peacock (police officer)|Robert Peacock]]. Peacock took him to Kent when he assumed the position of Chief Constable of [[Canterbury City Police]] in 1888.<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/97/101097954/ Robert Peacock]</ref>

By 1891 Ross was a [[Sergeant]]<ref>[http://www.kent-police-museum.co.uk Kent Police Museum, Chatham] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205083646/http://www.kent-police-museum.co.uk/ |date=5 February 2007 }}</ref> and had married a local Canterbury girl. He left Canterbury in 1891 to go to [[Ramsgate Borough Police]] as [[Inspector]]. Three years later, when the Chief Constable's post became vacant, such was the ability he had shown and such was the high esteem he had earned, that the watch committee appointed him Chief Constable without advertising the post. He left Ramsgate in 1898 to take up the position of Chief Constable of [[Bradford City Police|Bradford]],<ref>[http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/history/policing/police-archives-guide/west-yorkshire-police.htm West Yorkshire Police article]</ref> When at Bradford in charge of 354 men<ref>[http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=police%20and%20chief%20and%20%22roderick%20ross%22%20bacup%20linlithgow&frontpage=false&sortorder=dayrecent Glasgow Herald, 9 May 1900]</ref> he commenced a programme of reform and started the police band. He left two years later to take up the post of Chief Constable of Edinburgh, a post he held from 1900 to 1935. He was succeeded in Bradford by [[Joseph Farndale]].

When appointed the new Chief Constable of Edinburgh he sponsored the re-establishment<ref>[http://www.scots-sa.org.au/PACS/EXTRAS/PWD14%20MAY%2010.pdf Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band history]</ref> of the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band,<ref>[http://www.lbp.police.uk/pipeband/history.html Lothian and Borders Police Pipe Band]</ref> now known as the [[Lothian and Borders Police]] Pipe Band. Prior to his appointment the band had struggled as an occasional ''ad hoc'' enterprise. The band wore for many years as its tartan the Ancient Red Ross in his honour, only giving it up shortly after his death and the end of World War II.<ref>[http://www.lbp.police.uk/pipeband/historyphase2.html Lothian and Borders Police history]</ref>

Ross introduced [[police box]]es to Edinburgh in 1933. Edinburgh had at the time a population of over 427,000, and an area of over {{convert|52000|acre|km2}}; it was the largest urban police area in Scotland.<ref>[http://www.britishtelephones.com/pa150.htm Police Box history]</ref>

He was appointed [[Royal Victorian Order|Member 4th Class of the Royal Victorian Order]] (MVO) in September 1905, [[Order of the British Empire|Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours, and [[Commander of the Royal Victorian Order]] (CVO) in July 1934. He was awarded the [[King's Police Medal]] (KPM) in the [[1922 New Year Honours]]. 

He retired to [[Portobello, Edinburgh|Portobello]], Edinburgh and died on 6 March 1943 after a short illness in a nursing home at 19 Great King Street, Edinburgh. He is commemorated by a police golfing trophy, the Roderick Ross Challenge Cup, open to serving or retired Chief Officers.<ref>[http://spga.blogspot.com/ Scottish Police Golf Association]</ref>

In 1891 Ross married, Elizabeth Mills, the daughter of a Canterbury fruit merchant and former [[licensed victualler]]. The couple had thirteen children, the first six born in England. Of the children, one was named after his mentor Sir Robert Peacock and another after his friend [[Thomas Lipton|Sir Thomas Lipton]].<ref>[http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/4394639/person/-1576850574 Ancestry.com]</ref> Ross bore a remarkable resemblance to King Edward VII.<ref>[http://www.helmsdale.org/helmsdale-police-history.php Sutherland Police History]</ref><ref>[http://anthonyjcamp.com/page9.htm Anthony J. Camp, ''Royal Mistresses and Bastards: Fact and Fiction, 1714–1936'']</ref>

Ross and two of his sons were Chief Constables at the same time. [[Donald Angus Ross]] (born 1896) was Chief Constable of [[Argyllshire]] from 1927 to 1961<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NDM1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=HqYLAAAAIBAJ&pg=3009,2600082&dq=chief+constable+of+argyll+and+ross&hl=en ''Glasgow Herald'', 20 July 1961]</ref> and [[Douglas George Ross]] (born 1897) was Chief Constable of [[Sutherland]] from 1933 to 1962.

==References and notes==
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[[Category:1865 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Sutherland]]
[[Category:British Chief Constables]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Scottish recipients of the Queen's Police Medal]]