11942: Roderick Ross

Roderick, son of Allan Ross and Annabella Macleod, Parish Schoolhouse, Keose studied medicine at Glasgow University although he had intended to study divinity. He was, for a time, House Surgeon of a hospital in Glasgow before becoming LRCP and LRCS in 1875, after which he became the first doctor practising solely in the Parish of Lochs in September of that year. He lived in Crobeg initially, serving on the Lochs School Board before moving to Stornoway in 1879 and residing at 33 Kenneth Street. He returned to live at his mother’s birthplace, Valtos, Lochs in late 1881 and moved to Borve in c1885 where he became the doctor for the Parish of Barvas.

There was much illness in the district at that time as a result of large families living in overcrowded, unhygenic houses and the extent of poverty in the area. The doctors themselves were probably badly off as many of their patients could not afford to pay for medicines prescribed.

Roderick married Isabella Macdonald, Croir, Bernera and had two of a family, his son John also practising medicine.