Donald Ross

Donald Ross played soccer for Toowong Caledonians and represented Queensland in 1913. He was born in Linlithgow, Scotland and arrived in Brisbane in 1912 with wife Agnes and their children.

His form with Toowong saw Ross picked for the Queensland side which toured NSW in 1913. He played in all four matches as Queensland traded wins with New South Wales, lost to Newcastle and beat Combined Hospitals, all under the captaincy of James Peebles. He was not selected for Queensland in the 1914 series, but did play for the Brisbane representative side in a 6-3 loss against the visiting NSW team.

The war had a huge effect on soccer in Brisbane. It almost halved the number of teams between 1914 and 1915, and the formal senior grade competition was suspended in 1916. The same year Ross was seen playing for a Brisbane rep side in a number of games against the Signallers from the Chermside Depot, who were awaiting departure to the war. Ross would soon make the same journey.

Ross enlisted in January 1917 aged 35. His enlistment paper stated he had previously spent 4 years with the Garrison Artillery in Scotland. He departed Australia from Melbourne in June and spent the rest of the year training in England. Ross finally reached France in January 1918 with the 41st Battalion.

Ross almost immediately became sick with mumps and was taken to hospital, not returning to his unit until March. A bout of flu aside, his service continued uninterrupted until December when he was marched back to England. He started his journey back to Australia in April 1919, arriving two months later. Home, he was discharged as medically unit due to chronic bronchitis.

After the war, Ross returned to soccer with Brisbane side Thistle (unrelated to his pre-war club Merthyr Thistle). He continued with the club into the 1920s, where he was noted as an accomplished right back, despite being in his 40s. He moved to Caledonians in 1923. He was also seen as a ground announcer at the game between Norman Park and Latrobe at Wembley Park in Coorparoo. The Truth newspaper, on 21 August 1932 said Ross could be heard as far away as Stone’s Corner. 

Ross passed away in November 1950 and was buried in the Brisbane suburb of Holland Park.