James Ness MacBean Ross
James Ness MacBean Ross, MC & Bar (15 November 1889 – 3 April 1964) was a British doctor who served as a temporary surgeon with the Royal Naval Division during the First World War. He earned 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.
He was born in London to Elizabeth Ness and Donald Alexander MacBean Ross. After his father’s early death, his family moved to Tain, Ross-shire. He studied at Tain Royal Academy, Fettes College, and the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MB ChB in 1911 and earned his MD in 1914.
Ross worked in Edinburgh and London hospitals before joining the Royal Navy Medical Service on 3 August 1914. He served at sea on HMS Mars, then with the 1st Battalion, Royal Marines Light Infantry, Royal Naval Division at Cape Helles, Gallipoli, and Salonika. From 1916 to 1918 he served in France and Flanders, taking part in the Somme, Ancre, and Passchendaele campaigns. He was wounded and gassed several times; in 1917 he contracted trench fever and was invalided home in March 1917. He was mentioned in dispatches in April 1917 and returned to duty in April 1917.
His first MC was awarded for conspicuous gallantry near Gavrelle in April 1917, for leading stretcher-bearers under heavy fire. A Bar to his MC followed in 1918 for continuing to attend wounded under fire until he himself was severely wounded. He also received the Croix de Guerre with palms and three more mentions in dispatches. He survived being wounded three times, including a severe leg injury near Passchendaele in October 1917 that affected him for life. He earned the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1918 and was discharged from service on 7 May 1919.
Ross co-authored a memoir, On Four Fronts with the Royal Naval Division, published in 1918. After the war he settled in Sutton, Surrey, where he became a senior GP partner and was active in medical societies and hospital service. He served as surgeon to the Sutton Division of the Metropolitan Police and was a visiting medical officer at Epsom College. He held honorary life memberships with the British Red Cross and led the Sutton and Cheam division for many years. He retired in 1953 and moved to Mickleham.
He died on 3 April 1964 and is buried at Mickleham Church. He left £300 to the Sutton and District Medical Society to fund an annual MacBean Ross Lecture.
Ross had two sisters who were doctors. His sister Elizabeth Ness MacBean Ross volunteered in Serbia during World War I and died of typhus in 1915. A cousin, James Sharp Ness, was killed in 1917. In 1921 he married Gwendolyn Agnes Cooper and had two sons, Donald and David; the marriage ended in 1945. He then married Betty Adine Hoare, who survived him.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:52 (CET).