Robert Knox Ross (British Army officer)

Military career

Ross was born 23 August 1893, the son of Brigadier General R. J. Ross, he was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He graduated from Sandhurst and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey), the second most senior line infantry regiment of the British Army, in February 1913. He served with the 2nd Battalion of his regiment in South Africa and Bermuda.

On the outbreak of World War I, in August 1914, the battalion was sent to the Western Front and Ross was promoted to lieutenant in September, shortly after arrival and, with his battalion, fought in the First Battle of Ypres where he was wounded. In October 1915, he was awarded the Military Cross and received promotion to captain. Ross remained on the Western Front until 1916, upon promotion to the staff and becoming brigade major of the 27th Brigade, and later the 233rd Brigade in Palestine in the Middle Eastern theatre. In 1916 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and became a General Staff Officer Grade II (GSO2) with the 60th (2/2nd London) Division, part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF). He ended the war in 1918 having been awarded the DSO, MC, and was thrice mentioned in despatches.

Remaining in the army during the interwar period, he served as adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, Queen's Royal Regiment in India from 1919–1923. He was attached to the Egyptian Army and the Sudan Defence Force (SDF) for almost a decade, from 1923–1932. In 1937, promoted to lieutenant colonel, he assumed command of the 2nd Battalion of his regiment, then serving in Palestine, for which he was awarded his fourth mention in despatches.

In April 1940, seven months after the outbreak of World War II, he returned to the United Kingdom and, the following month, as an acting brigadier, took command of the 160th Infantry Brigade, a Territorial Army (TA) formation then serving in Northern Ireland with its parent unit, the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division. In September 1942, promoted to major general, he became the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division.

He trained the division in England for the next 21 months, leading it with great success during Operation Overlord, codename for the Allied invasion of Normandy, in the summer of 1944. His division sustained heavy casualties in the Battle for Caen and the battles that followed, but by the end of the campaign in Normandy had captured some 3,500 German troops as prisoners of war (POWs). The division then, in the aftermath of the Battle of Falaise, took part in the pursuit of the retreating German forces during the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, entering the Netherlands and playing a minor role in Operation Market Garden, capturing the town of 's-Hertogenbosch, later being one of the few British divisions to play a part in the Battle of the Bulge. In February 1945 the division played a significant role in Operation Veritable, later crossing the River Rhine in March and taking part in the Western Allied invasion of Germany, eventually ending the war in Hamburg in May. He continued to command the division in the Allied occupation of Germany.

For his services in North-West Europe he was awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1945, along with the French Legion of Honour and the Croix de guerre, the latter two in 1944. He then commanded the Aldershot and Hampshire District in Southeast England before his retirement from the British Army in December 1946. He was described by a junior staff officer as "confident and impressive and greatly respected as a commander, he was not charismatic like many other generals and was rather reserved and introspective by nature. In my experience he was always courteous, never overbearing and never tried to impress as a great 'character' like a Monty, a Patton or a Horrocks. He was ruthless when necessary, as all successful commanders need to be at times, but I do not think he was ever unfair." He died on 3 November 1951, at the age of 58, of a heart attack.