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Rev Dr Andrew Ross

Obituary of the Rev Dr Andrew Ross, biographer and missionary worker; born 10 May, 1931, in Dalkeith; died 26 July 2008, in Edinburgh, aged 77.

Born into a Lothian mining family that was in part Presbyterian and in part Roman Catholic, Andrew Ross was a life-long ecumenist and a tireless fighter for human justice.

Ordained by the Church of Scotland in 1958, he ministered for seven years in the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian in Nyasaland/Malawi.

Back in Scotland, a year's senior studentship in Edinburgh University's department of history led quickly to his appointment in 1966 in the Faculty of Divinity's department of ecclesiastical history as the UK's first designated lecturer in the history of missions. Thus he became part, with Professor Alec Cheyne, David Wright and, later, Dr Peter Matheson, of the "Cheyne gang". Together they transformed teaching and research in church history in Scotland, with a highly professional emphasis on close work with documents, sound historical methodology and a global perspective.

His teaching was broad. While his heart was in central Africa (where he was an adopted member of the Ngoni tribe and where his young daughter is buried), his scholarly interest in North America and east Asia was no less strong; he was a visiting lecturer in many lands and his global knowledge was recognised in his appointment as deputy director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non- Western World from 1986-98.

Full obituary at The Scotsman.