
Ross boys from Embo as caddies at Dornoch 1912
Monochrome photograph that originated in Boston, USA from Grace Scott, the daughter of Maryann Ross formerly from Embo.
Maryann, the mother of Grace Scott, was the daughter of John Ross and Maryann Ross (Maryann aigh Merrie) nee Cumming of 2 School Street, Embo (Springwell Cottage). They had a very large family most of whom settled in the Boston area of the USA.
The two barefoot caddies in the photograph are the youngest sons of John and Maryann. The names of the golfers are unknown but they were probably summer time golfing tourists to Dornoch or even from a party of the many guests that the Carnegie family brought to Skibo Castle in the early 1900s. The photograph c 1912 appears to have been taken outside the Dornoch Golf Club House.
The boy on the left is John Ross born in Embo 29/10/1900 and killed in WWI while serving as a boy sailor on the SS Ava of Glasgow on its first day out of Liverpool 26/1/1917 on passage to Dakar and Rangoon with a cargo of coal and general supplies. It is presumed the ‘Ava’ was torpedoed (possibly by U45) with the loss of 92 lives and no survivors. The boy on the right is his younger brother Kenneth Ross who was born in Embo on the 13/12/1903 and died in Boston, USA on the 23/2/1976
[There is a commemorative page for John Donald Ross, with Commonwealth War Graves certificate, on the Historylinks Museum website – War Memorials - WW1 Roll of Honour.]
Dimensions: jpeg file