Photos from Mount Royal Cemetery Quebec, 2003. While at the 51st, Annual Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics in Montreal, Canada, June, 2003, I visited the final resting place of some of my Ross relatives. My great great great grandfather James Ross was an engineer and farmer from Dalkeith, Scotland who emigrated to Canada with his brother Thomas some time before Joseph Hargrave and his brother James did in 1817. James Ross worked on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa and the Lachine Canal in Montreal. He took Lot 3 on the Jamestown Forks Island Concession and moved his wife Mary Hargrave (Joseph Hargrave’s daughter) and their family there in 1831 around the time my great great grandmother Agnes was born.
James Ross’s oldest son William had twelve children and two of his sons were physicians in the Montreal area: James and Joseph John. They and their families are interred in two plots at the Mount Royal Cemetery (F760 and M581, respectively).
William Ross’s son James Ross was born in the farmhouse on lot 46, concession 1, Ormstown, Quebec in 1854. His is the grandson of James Ross from Dalkeith and my first cousin thrice removed. He graduated with honors from McGill University in 1878, winning the Prince of Wales Gold Medal in Moral and Mental Philosophy. He earned his medical degree from McGill in 1881, winning the Holmes Gold Medal. Dr. Ross married Beatrice Dudgeon Graham in 1884. He practiced medicine for 26 years at what is now known as “the Little Doctor’s Office” He died of pneumonia in 1907 at age 53.
James Hargrave Drummond Ross was the fourth child and second son of Dr. James Ross and is my second cousin twice removed. He was born in 1897 in Dundas and was a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada and attended McGill University. He joined the Royal Canadian Field Artillery in August 1915 and served in France from 1915 to 1919, achieving the rank of major. After returning to Canada, he received his B.S. degree from McGill in 1922 and married Ida Jean Rutherford in 1924. He was president of Chipman Chemicals Limited of Hamilton, Ontario. He died on June 16, 1974 in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec at age 77.
James Hargrave Drummond Ross’s brother, Stanley Graham Ross, was the second child and oldest son of James Ross. He was born in 1888 in Dundas and received his B.A. in 1910 and M.D. in 1913 from McGill University. In 1915, he obtained a commission in the 6th Field Ambulance, 2nd Canadian Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was promoted to captain in April 1915 and major in September 1917.
Dr. Stanley Graham Ross received the Military Cross October 18, 1917 “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during an attack. He directed the evacuation of the wounded for forty-eight hours continuously, and repeatedly aided the wounded under very heavy shell fire. The example which he set to all ranks, and his unbounded energy, was no doubt the means of saving many lives.” He also received the Distinguished Service Order on October 17, 1918 “For Conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. On three consecutive days this officer was in charge of collecting posts and advanced dressing stations. He accompanied stretcher bearers in the advance, to see that proper touch was maintained. His coolness and disregard of danger under heavy fire had an excellent effect on the work of the bearer parties.”
Major Stanley Graham Ross was discharged in 1919 and went on to practice medicine in Montreal, becoming the Chief Pediatrician at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He married Jean Leslie Drummond from Colorado Springs in 1930. He died in 1980 at age 91.
My first cousin thrice removed, Joseph John Ross, was James Ross’s younger brother, born in 1867. Like his brother, he attended McGill, receiving his B.A. in 1890 and M.D. in 1894. He married Ida Martendale Ferns in 1895 and was a physician in Montreal until he died of pneumonia in 1920 at age 53.
