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{{Short description|Scottish policeman (1865-1943)}}
{{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.

== Early life ==
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.

== Police career ==
On coming of age at 21 he joined the police. Firstly, the [[Linlithgow Burgh Police]],<ref>Gordon Smith, ''Bradford's Police''</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=November 2024}}<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>{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} 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>{{Cite ODNB|id=|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/97954|url=|title=Peacock, Sir Robert|first=Joanne|last=Klein|date=23 September 2010}}</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}}{{nonspecific|date=November 2024}}</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>{{Cite web |title=West Yorkshire Police |url=http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/history/policing/police-archives-guide/west-yorkshire-police.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225093214/http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/history/policing/police-archives-guide/west-yorkshire-police.htm |archive-date=2013-02-25 |website=[[Open University]]}}</ref> When at Bradford in charge of 354 men<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000060/19000509/047/0012|newspaper=[[Glasgow Herald]]|date=9 May 1900|title=Edinburgh Town Council. The New Chief-Constable.|access-date=2024-11-29|url-access=registration|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</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]{{Dead link|date=November 2024|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> of the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band,<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=http://www.lbp.police.uk/pipeband/history.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716231336/http://www.lbp.police.uk/pipeband/history.html |archive-date=2011-07-16 |website=[[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>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lbp.police.uk/pipeband/historyphase2.html|title= Band History 1945–1975|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716231345/http://www.lbp.police.uk/pipeband/historyphase2.html|archive-date=2011-07-16|website=[[Lothian & Borders Police Pipe Band|Lothian and Borders Police Pipe Band]]}}</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>{{Cite web |title=P.A. 150 Police System |url=http://www.britishtelephones.com/pa150.htm |date=2022-12-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720194651/http://www.britishtelephones.com/pa150.htm |archive-date=2012-07-20 |website=www.britishtelephones.com}}</ref>

He was appointed [[Royal Victorian Order|Member 4th Class of the Royal Victorian Order]] (MVO) in September 1905, [[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]].

== Personal life ==
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>{{Cite web|url=http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/4394639/person/-1576850574|url-access=registration|website=[[Ancestry.com|Ancestry.co.uk]]|title=Roderick Ross 1865–1943|access-date=2024-11-29}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=November 2024|reason=Ancestry.com is deemed generally unreliable, see WP:ANCESTRY}} Ross bore a remarkable resemblance to King Edward VII.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.helmsdale.org/helmsdale-police-history.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130235141/http://www.helmsdale.org/helmsdale-police-history.php|archive-date=2023-11-30|date=2010|title=The Police in Helmsdale|website=www.Helmsdale.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=Anthony J. |last=Camp|title=Royal Mistresses and Bastards: Fact and Fiction, 1714–1936|chapter=25. Edward VII (1841-1910)|date=2007|ISBN=978-0-9503308-2-2|publisher=Published by the author}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=November 2024}}

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>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NDM1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=HqYLAAAAIBAJ&pg=3009,2600082&dq=chief+constable+of+argyll+and+ross&hl=en|work=[[Glasgow Herald]]|date=20 July 1961|access-date=29 November 2024|title=Longest-Serving Chief Constable|via=[[Google News]]|page=6}}</ref> and [[Douglas George Ross]] (born 1897) was Chief Constable of [[Sutherland]] from 1933 to 1962.

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>{{Cite web |title=83rd SPGA Championship - Anderson wins eigth [sic] title over Ayrshire links |url=https://spga.blogspot.com/2007/09/83rd-spga-championship-anderson-wins.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231124222804/https://spga.blogspot.com/2007/09/83rd-spga-championship-anderson-wins.html|archive-date=2023-11-24|author=AJM|access-date=2024-11-29 |date=2007-09-09 |website=Scottish Police Golf Association}}</ref>

==References and notes==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Roderick}}
[[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]]

Roderick Ross - Revision history

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