The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Ross, Hon. Sir Robert Dalrymple
Ross, Hon. Sir Robert Dalrymple, sometime Speaker Legislative Assembly, South Australia, was the son of John Pemberton Ross, a West Indian planter, by his marriage with a daughter of Dr. Alexander Anderson. In 1858 Mr. Ross was appointed acting Colonial Secretary of the Gold Coast, but retired in August 1859, after displaying great bravery and discretion in dealing with the disaffected tribes. When at Cape Coast Castle he initiated negotiations which led to the ultimate acquisition by England of the Dutch settlements on the Gold Coast. On his return home Mr. Ross was appointed to the commissariat control of districts A and B, but in 1860 was ordered to China and served at Tientsin with the expeditionary force under General Sir Hope Grant. He was then military accountant in China, stationed at Hong Kong until 1862, when he was appointed head of the Commissariat Department in South Australia, and subsequently provincial aide-de-camp and private secretary to Sir D. Daly, the then Governor. Mr. Ross served in the Maori war of 1864-5, and received the New Zealand medal. At the close of the war he returned to Australia, and in 1869, on promotion, to England. He visited India at the request of Sir James Fergusson, then Governor of South Australia, with a view to inducing the Government to start a central remount station at Port Darwin, so as to secure a steady supply of Australian horses for army purposes. Though this mission was in the end resultless, Mr. Ross was officially thanked by the Governor-General for the information afforded. In a letter to the Times written about this time Mr. Ross advocated the then novel idea that the Port Darwin line of cable communication between England and Australia should be constructed without subsidies on a business basis, as was ultimately done. In Dec. 1869 Mr. Ross was ordered to Ireland to take charge of the flying columns then being organised at Limerick, Tipperary, etc., to operate against the Fenians. In May 1870 he was stationed at Manchester on duty in the Control Department, but in the following year finally left the Government service and settled in South Australia. Here he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Wallaroo in 1875, and for Gumeracha later on. On the death of Mr. Dutton in 1877, he was offered the post of Agent-General for the colony in London, but declined it, and Sir Arthur Blyth was appointed. He was Treasurer in the Colton Government from June 1876 to Oct. 1877, and in Jan. 1881 he was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in succession to the late Sir G. S. Kingston. He was three times successively re-elected, and filled the chair of the house till his death on Dec. 27th, 1887. He was knighted in 1886.