James Ness MacBean Ross

Temporary Surgeon James Ness MacBean Ross, (15 November 1889 – 3 April 1964) was a British medical doctor who was deployed with the Royal Naval Division during the First World War. He was awarded his first Military Cross in 1917 and a Bar in 1918, he was also awarded the Croix de Guerre with palms and was mentioned in dispatches three times.

Early life and education James Ness MacBean Ross was born in London on 15 November 1889 to Elizabeth Ness, of Tain, Ross-shire, and her husband, Donald Alexander MacBean Ross, manager of the London branch of the Commercial Bank of Scotland. His father died at an early age and the family returned to Tain in Ross-shire. A Bar was awarded to his Military Cross the following year; this was originally gazetted on 15 January 1918 but with the citation being published on 23 April 1918: It is interesting that on each occasion that he was gazetted, his name is misspelt as McBean.

In addition to his MC and Bar, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palms and was mentioned in dispatches three times. These wounds affected him for the rest of his life. He took the FRCSEd in 1918 and was finally discharged from hospital and invalided from service on 7 May 1919.

Post-war life In 1920 MacBean Ross settled in Sutton, Surrey, and became senior GP partner in his surgery. He was a keen member of the Sutton and District Medical Society and was President from 1930–31. He joined the staff of the old Sutton Cottage Hospital before acting as secretary in its rebuilding as the Sutton and Cheam General Hospital. He was also surgeon to the Sutton Division of the Metropolitan Police and visiting medical officer at Epsom College. He was an honorary life member of the British Red Cross Society as well as being vice president of the Sutton and Cheam Division from 1936–53; he was awarded the Voluntary Medical Services Medal with three Bars. At the beginning of World War I, Dr Elizabeth Ness MacBean Ross, at the invitation of the Serbian government, volunteered to serve in Serbia. She died of typhus fever on her 37th birthday, 14 February 1915.

In 1921 he married Gwendolyn Agnes Cooper and had two sons, Donald, who died young, and David. The marriage was dissolved in 1945 and he later married Betty Adine Hoare, who survived him, dying in 1990.

Honours and awards