Alexander Ross (1845-1923), Chief Engineer Great Northern Railway
1884 Assistant Engineer Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
1890 Chief Engineer Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway
1923 February 3rd. Died
1923 Obituary [1]
ALEXANDER ROSS, a Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and one of the earliest Past Presidents of the Liverpool Engineering Society, who died on 3rd February, 1923, was born in April, 1849, and was educated at Aberdeen and Owen's College, Manchester.
He became a pupil with the Great North of Scotland Railway in 1862, afterwards being appointed an Assistant in the London and North Western Railway, rising to the position of District Engineer at Liverpool.
In 1884, he transferred to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway as an Assistant Engineer, where he remained until 1890, when he became Chief Engineer to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway.
After leaving that Company he became Chief Engineer to the Great Northern Railway, finally, in 1911, he went into private practice in Westminster. He was engaged in many important works, such as the Piccadilly Tube, and various other outstanding traffic problems.
During the War, he served on the Metropolitan Munitions Committee. He was a Member of various Committees, amongst which may be mentioned the British Engineering Standards Association, of which he was Chairman, of the Committee on Railway and Tramway Rails from 1912-1922; the Committee appointed by the Institution of Civil Engineers to report on the Deterioration of Structures Exposed to Sea Action; and the Standing Committee on Engineering of the Scientific and Industrial Research Department.
Mr. Ross was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1915-16, and of the Liverpool Engineering Society in 1880; having joined the Society as one of its earliest Members in 1876.
1923 Obituary [2]
ALEXANDER ROSS, Past-President, son of John Ross, of Laggan, Inverness-shire, was born on the 20th April, 1845, and died on the 3rd February, 1923, at Hampstead, London.
After being educated in Aberdeen and at the Owens College, Manchester, he served 5 years' pupilage on the Great North of Scotland Railway under Mr. A. Fraser, and then for 5 years was principal Engineering Assistant on the same railway.
In 1871 he joined the staff of the London and North Western Railway, on which he remained for 2 years. After being in charge, for the contractors, of the Leyburn and Haws branch of the North Eastern Railway, he rejoined the London and North Western Railway in October, 1874, and became District Engineer at Liverpool, under the late Mr. S. Barton Worthington, M.Inst. C.E., Engineer of the Northern Division. He became Assistant Engineer to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1884, and in 1890 was appointed Chief Engineer of the Manchester, Sheffield. and Lincolnshire (subsequently the Great Central) Railway.
In 1897 he was appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the Great Northern Railway, which position he held until the autumn of 1911, when he retired and engaged in private practice as a consulting engineer in Westminster.
In addition to general railway work, Mr. Ross was responsible for a number of important extensions, such as the Leen Valley line ; the connecting line through Nottingham ; numerous widenings north of London ; the southern portion of the Enfield to Stevenage loopline ; and the portion of the Piccadilly tube railway between Finsbury Park and the Strand. Among other notable works may be mentioned the steel viaduct crossing Breydon Water, outside Yarmouth. He was much interested in a scheme for an outer circle railway linking up the railways north of London, and in the project for a passenger subway from the House of Commons to Whitehall Gardens.
Mr. Ross rendered valuable services to the country during the War as Deputy Director-General of Railway Materials under the Ministry of Munitions and as a member of the Metropolitan Munitions Committee, being one of three directors who superintended the construction of the Perivale Filling Factory. He was also a member of the Committee on Deterioration of Structures Exposed to Sea-Action, and of the Standing Committee on Engineering of the Scientific and Industrial Research Department appointed by the Privy Council.
For many years Mr. Ross was one of the representatives of The Institution on the Main Committee of the British Engineering Standards Association, and chairman of its Committee on Railway and Tramway Rails. He married in August, 1878, Annie Stephens, who survives him, and by whom he had three sons and one daughter. Two of his sons fell in the War. The eldest son, Mr. A. P. Ross, M. Inst. C.E., is Engineer to the Cheshire Lines Committee.
Mr. Ross was elected a Member of The Institution on the 25th May, 1880, became a Member of the Council in 1903, and President during Session 1915-16.