Horatio Ross

Horatio Ross (5 September 1801 – 6 December 1886) was a celebrated sportsman and a pioneer amateur photographer.

Ross was born at Rossie Castle, near Montrose, Angus on 5 September 1801, the son of Hercules Ross, a rich landowner who had acquired a substantial fortune in Jamaica. He was named after his godfather, Horatio Nelson, his father’s intimate friend.

As a young man, he embarked on a brief military career, with a commission in the 14th Light Dragoons, and an equally brief political career as MP (first for Aberdeen Burghs and then for Montrose Burghs) between 1831 and 1835. However, he was reluctant to engage too deeply in any activity that might distract him from his primary and abiding passion for field sports.

His sporting activities were numerous and were recorded in Sportascrapiana (1867), a collection of anecdotes edited by C.A.Wheeler. He was a fine cricketer, a sculling champion and a prize-winning yachtsman. In 1826, on Clinker, he won a famous steeplechase against Captain Douglas, on Radical, a horse owned by Lord Kennedy. He was also a remarkable pedestrian. On one occasion, Lord Kennedy had engaged in a walking match with Sir Andrew Leith Hay for £2,500. Ross was asked to act as umpire. Despite having just finished a full day’s shooting, he set off at 9.00pm to walk nearly 100 miles from Banchory, Kincardineshire, to Inverness. He walked through the night, the following day and the next night, arriving at Inverness at 6.00am. His boots having disintegrated, he completed the last 25 miles or so barefoot.

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