Sir Walter Robert "Bertie" Alexander Ross, KCVO,

FRICS The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is a global professional body for surveyors, founded in London in 1868. It works at a cross-governmental level, and aims to promote and enforce the highest international standards in the val ...

(born 1950) is a Scottish surveyor and courtier. Born in 1950, he is the son of Colonel

Walter John Macdonald Ross Walter John Macdonald Ross , (1914–1982) was a British Army officer who served as Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright from 1977 to 1982. Personal life Ross was son of Major Robert Ross (1877–1935), deputy assistant provost marshal for the Wes ...

,"Ross, Sir (Walter) Robert (Alexander)"
''

Who's Who ''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biography, biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a gr ...

'' (online ed., Oxford University Press, December 2018). Retrieved 10 June 2019. who served as

Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

from 1977 to 1982; his older brother was Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Malcolm Ross, Comptroller of the

Lord Chamberlain's Office The Lord Chamberlain's Office is a department within the British Royal Household. It is concerned with matters such as protocol, state visits, investitures, garden parties, royal weddings and funerals. For example, in April 2005 it organised the ...

from 1991 to 2006 and Lord Lieutenant of Kirkpatrick from 2006 to 2018. Ross was educated at the

Royal Agricultural College ;(from Virgil's Georgics)"Caring for the Fieldsand the Beasts" , established = 2013 - University status – College , type = Public , president = King Charles , vice_chancellor = Peter McCaffery , students ...

. After spending a year as a surveyor for Buccleuch Estates, he joined

Savills Savills plc is a British real estate services company based in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The business was established by Alfred Savill (1829–1905) in 1855 in London. ...

in 1973. He became a partner in 1982 and a director four years later. In 1996, he joined the Council of the

Duchy of Cornwall The Duchy of Cornwall ( kw, Duketh Kernow) is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch obtains possession of the duchy and the title of 'Duke of Cornwall' at ...

. The following year, he left Savills and was appointed Secretary and Keeper of the Records of the Duchy of Cornwall. He retired in 2013, and returned to Savills as a

consultant A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

. In 2011, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described the Duchy as "a target-oriented investment portfolio, headed by the prince with a £200,000-a-year chief executive, Bertie Ross, who oversees the equivalent of 91 full-time staff." In 2005, Ross was pressed by MPs on the

House of Commons Public Accounts Committee The Committee of Public Accounts is a select committee of the British House of Commons. It is responsible for overseeing government expenditures, and to ensure they are effective and honest. The committee is seen as a crucial mechanism for en ...

, who argued that the Duchy's accounts should be publicly available; he rebuffed these calls, stating that "The Duchy of Cornwall income is private to the Prince of Wales. Any business or estate that's private should be able to choose its own audit." Other MPs on the committee argued that the £11.9 million the prince was then earning annually through the duchy was "excessive"; after Ross stated that the Prince used this to fund his staff and duties, Gerry Steinberg said that "This looks very much like jiggery-pokery", a statement which made headlines. Ross denied any wrong-doing. Ross was appointed a Commander of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

in the 2006 New Year Honours, and was promoted to Knight Commander in the

2012 New Year Honours 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

.
Supplement to the London Gazette
', 31 December 2011(issue 60009), p. 3

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Robert Living people 1950 births British surveyors Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order