Biography of Ken Ross

KENNETH CHARLES ROSS

Kenneth Charles Ross was born on the 13^th of May 1924 at 21 Penzance Street, West Hartlepool.  He was the second son and child of Walter Malcolm Ross and his wife Isabella (nee Almond).  After schooling at Avenue Road and Church Square, Ken started work as a delivery boy for Guthries, a local soft drinks distributor.  Their horse and cart was a familiar sight on the streets of West Hartlepool.  Ken later found employment at the local Cameron’s brewery and was “called up” for service with the Royal navy during World War II.

Ken Ross trained at the shore establishment HMS “Ganges” and from January 1943 he served in the Tribal Class destroyer HMS “Nubian” as a Seaman Gunner.  His ship was then part of a destroyer flotilla operating out of the ancient, sun-drenched harbour of Valetta, Malta.  This ship already had an outstanding reputation and Ken was to see much active service.  On May 3^rd 1943, for example, “Nubian” and two other destroyers intercepted a large enemy ammunition ship and a small torpedo boat escort.  Both were sunk by gunfire, the former with spectacular results, in what proved to be the last shots of the Battle of the Mediterranean.

“Nubian,” with Ken aboard, also provided close gunnery support for the Salerno landings of September 1943.  This was the beachhead for the Allied invasion of Italy and the fighting was both heavy and desperate.  British ships came under intense air attack, but the operation was ultimately successful.  After Salerno Ken was given leave before joining the newly built anti-aircraft cruiser HMS “Swiftsure.”

 In 1944 “Swiftsure” was serving in the Indian Ocean, being attached to the British Pacific Fleet.  Operating in tandem with the US Navy and based at Melbourne in Australia, these ships participated in the successful American landing at Okinawa, where they came under sustained attack from Japanese “Kamikaze” aircraft.    Ken received the following hard-won campaign medals for his service during World War II: Italy Star, Pacific Star, 1939-45 Star, 1939-45 War Medal.  Whilst serving aboard “Swiftsure” Ken was able to visit his maternal uncle, Edmund Hepple Almond, who had emigrated from the Northeast to Australia and was living in Melbourne.

With brief exceptions, Ken never spoke of his combat experiences.  It is known that during one spell of very heavy fighting, he turned to the man next to him only to find that his shipmate had been decapitated by shrapnel.  Grotesquely, the headless body completed its final movements, putting a shell into the breach, before collapsing.  He also mentioned the emaciated condition of British Prisoners of war liberated from Japanese camps.

After the war Ken returned to West Hartlepool, working for a time at the local zinc works or – as he called it – “the chain gang!”  He quit t train as a bricklayer, attending a council-run facility at his old school, Avenue Road.  He worked on the building of new houses in Raby Road before moving south.  Whilst working in Salisbury he was hospitalised with a perforated ulcer.  After surgery he moved to London, marrying a local girl, Olive, and settling in multicultural Brixton, which he called “a very exciting area.”  Ken was an easy-going, happy-go-lucky character with little for materialism. 

Ken and his wife adopted two daughters, Geraldine and Ann.  Olive Ross passed away in the opening months of 1979 and Ken followed in the early 1990s.   

Source: “The Ross Family and Others” by Stuart James Wilson.

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