Ross, Thomas

About the artist

Name

Ross, Thomas

Biography

Thomas Ross was born in Errol in Perthshire (Tayside?), the son of a tenant farmer, but began his career as an apprentice to the architect Alexander Kirkland in Glasgow c.1855, later moving to work with Charles Wilson. In 1862 he was appointed assistant to David MacGibbon in Edinburgh, with a partnership ten years later.

Both partners were keen sketchers of Scottish buildings and used these drawings as the basis of their 5 volume work 'The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland'' 1887-92, followed by 'The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland' in 1896-97. In 1908, appointed a founder member of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Ross was to receive an LLD from Edinburgh University in 1910 and in 1918 the Royal Scottish Academy elected him an Honorary Academician and Professor of Antiquities. He combined artistic and architectural skills throughout his career, undertaking his last major architectural commission with the reconstruction of 3-11 Abbey Strand (Edinburgh) in 1916. In the 1920s he worked with Robert Lorimer as editor of the National Art Survey for Scotland, volumes two and three: 'Examples of Scottish Architecture from the twelfth to the seventeenth century.'

After his death in 1930 his son, James MacLaren Ross, donated some papers to the National Library, but 53 drawings relating to Edinburgh were given to Edinburgh Central Library.

Creator of