Pic.Acc. Upgrade Project - Information transferred from Pic.Acc.2692 as part of the eRecords Project 2011-2012

Originals lent for copying by Mary Mennis, 22 December 1972
Pic.Acc.2692

William Anthony Ross (1895-1973), Catholic missionary, was born on 23 September 1895 at Whiteport, New York State, United States of America, sixth of ten children of Irish-born parents William Ross, engineer, and his wife Mary Agnes, née O'Laughlin. William's mother died when he was 7. While at the Franciscan Sisters' welfare home at Peekskill, he heard of Fr Damien's work with lepers on Molokai Island, Hawaii, and dreamed of becoming a missionary. After he had completed high school, the Sisters arranged for him to attend college at St Laurent, Montreal, Canada. In 1913 he began an apprenticeship in an electrical-engineering firm. Three years later he entered the seminary run by the missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word (S.V.D.), at Techny, Illinois. Ordained priest on 10 June 1922, he was appointed to the S.V.D. seminary at Duxbury, Massachusetts

In 1926 Francis Wolf, the German bishop at Alexishafen in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, wrote to the American province of the S.V.D. requesting an English-speaking priest to be his secretary. Ross volunteered, and arrived in New Guinea on 19 November. Among other responsibilities, he acted as liaison officer between German missionaries and Australian administrators of the former German colony

During World War II Ross and his colleague Fr George Bernarding helped Australian civilians to escape from Japanese troops advancing from the north coast. Despite protests from the Catholic Church, both priests were evacuated to Australia under military orders in February 1943. For the next two years Fr Ross served in the parish of Kogarah, Sydney. In September 1944 he and Bernarding returned to New Guinea

Reference:
Australian Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ross-william-anthony-11566 (accessed 21 May, 2012)...