Ross was born in Calcutta, India, son of John Brackenridge Ross, CBE,[1] a former Lieutenant in the Indian Army Reserve (Supply and Transport Corps),[2][3] a businessman involved in the coal-mining industry as a partner in Gilchrist, Peace & Ross, of Calcutta, "merchants and engineers, shipping, clearing and forwarding agents", managing agents for, amongst others, the Indian Coal and Mineral Syndicate Ltd and the Konda Colliery,[4] and Clare Margaret, daughter of Captain Patrick Fitzpatrick of the Indian Army.
With a hint of the debonair style that was to characterise his life, Ross avoided participation in the OTC and all study of mathematics and science, instead enjoying art, French poetry and racquet sports.
As a senior boy he was caned for making an unlicensed visit to Wimbledon; it was his misfortune that he figured, smoking a cigarette, in a photograph of spectators carried in his headmaster's newspaper the following morning.
[8] In 1940 he went to read Modern Languages at St John's College, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis.
Before doing so, he appeared in the annual match against Cambridge at Lord's in 1941, but because of the Second World War the fixture was reduced to a single day and did not have first-class status.