A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists/Ross, William Stewart
Ross, William Stewart ("Saladin"), writer. B. Mar. 20, 1844. Ed. New Abbey parish school, Hutton Hall Academy, and Glasgow University. Son of a Scottish farm servant, Ross spent two years as usher at Hutton Hall, and then went to Glasgow University to prepare for the ministry. He became a Rationalist, abandoned theological study, and began to write stories and poems for the Scottish press. His Mildred Merloch, a novel, ran serially in the Glasgow Weekly Mail. Laurie invited him to London to assist in publishing educational works, and in 1872 he set up a publishing business of his own in Farringdon Street under the name of W. Stewart and Co. For some years he published educational works and magazines, and he edited the School Magazine; but he gradually became absorbed in Rationalist propaganda. In 1880 he was joint editor with C. Watts of the Secular Review, and four years later he became sole editor and proprietor. He changed its name in 1889 to The Agnostic Journal and Secular Review, and contributed weekly to it under the name of "Saladin." His best works are God and His Book (1887) and Woman: Her Glory and Her Shame (2 vols., 1894). He also wrote several volumes of poetry; and he won a gold medal for the best poem on Robert Burns at the unveiling of a statue in 1879, and another for a poem describing the visit of Kossuth to the grave of Burns. D. Nov. 30, 1906.