Alan Ross

Alan John Ross (6 May 1922 – 14 February 2001) was a British poet, writer, editor and publisher. Early years Ross was born in Calcutta, India, son of John Brackenridge Ross, CBE, a former Lieutenant in the Indian Army Reserve (Supply and Transport Corps), a businessman involved in the coal-mining industry as a partner in Gilchrist, Peace & Ross, of Calcutta, "merchants and engineers, shipping, clearing and forwarding agents", managing agents for, amongst others, the Indian Coal and Mineral Syndicate Ltd and the Konda Colliery, and Clare Margaret, daughter of Captain Patrick Fitzpatrick of the Indian Army. When, aged seven, he was sent to be educated in Falmouth, England, he spoke better Hindustani than English. Following preparatory school, he boarded at Haileybury where, being both small for his age and a latecomer to his year, he initially suffered greatly from bullying – to his intense relief, the bully was killed in a cycling accident whilst on holiday – but his stock quickly rose when he revealed a talent which matched his passion for cricket. With a hint of the debonair style that was to characterise his life, Ross avoided participation in the OTC and all study of mathematics and science, instead enjoying art, French poetry and racquet sports. As a senior boy he was caned for making an unlicensed visit to Wimbledon; it was his misfortune that he figured, smoking a cigarette, in a photograph of spectators carried in his headmaster's newspaper the following morning. In 1940 he went to read Modern Languages at St John's College, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis. Ross represented the university at both cricket and squash but did not complete his studies after joining the Royal Navy in 1941. Before doing so, he appeared in the annual match against Cambridge at Lord's in 1941, but because of the Second World War the fixture was reduced to a single day and did not have first-class status. In the same season he appeared in one one-day match for Northamptonshire. Naval career During his first two years in the Royal Navy, Ross served on several destroyers escorting supply ships to the Soviet Union. On 30 December 1942 he was almost killed whilst serving aboard , the leading destroyer in a convoy assigned to fend off a strong flotilla of German capital ships intent on annihilating the arctic convoy JW 51B, at the Battle of the Barents Sea.