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The Airmen's Stories - P/O A R Ross

 

Alexander Richard Ross was born on 21st February 1919 in Montreal, Canada, the son of William Ross and Helen Robertson Ross.

However there is no indication that his parents were Canadian, all references place them in Surbiton, Surrey.

AR Ross was educated at Haileybury College and then at Imperial College, where he studied Engineering.

He was a member of the London University Air Squadron in 1938. He joined the RAFVR in June 1939 as an Airman u/t Pilot.

 

 

Called up on 1st September 1939 he completed his training, was commissioned and joined 610 Squadron at Acklington on 22nd September 1940.

On 11th December 1940 Ross was accompanying a new pilot, Sgt. HB McGregor, on a training flight in Spitfires, Ross in X4649 and McGregor in P9451.

At low level McGregor's aircraft sliced off the tail of X4649, Ross was able to bail out but P9451 came down in a marsh at Titlington Burn, East Bolton, Northumberland.

McGregor's remains were not recovered until 1952. The mostly intact front cockpit and engine section of P9451 was recovered in 2000 and are exhibited in the Hooton Park Trust at Ellesmere Port.

Ross was shot down by return fire from a Ju88 he had engaged over Portsmouth on 15th April 1941. He crashed into the sea in Spitfire P7684.

On 21st April a Royal Navy vessel recovered a body that proved to be Ross, it was landed at Gosport.

Ross was 21 and is buried in Surbiton Cemetery, Surrey.

Ross is also commemorated on the Canadian War Memorial, though again the connection is undocumented. A picture there (below) shows him with his brothers William (1918-36) and Malcolm Scott (1922-47).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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