David Mitchell Ross was born in Grafton, NSW, the sixth of seven children of Thomas Fergus Ross, and Christine (nee Mitchell.)
His parents both came from Scotland. Thomas Ross contracted tuberculosis as a medical student in Scotland and was sent to Australia to recover. Unable to continue medical studies he became a schoolteacher. He invited his fiancée, Christina Mitchell, to come to Australia to marry him. The Ross family kept a strict Presbyterian house. Only the Bible and parentally approved books were allowed to be read on Sundays.
Of their seven children, five graduated in medicine from the University of Sydney. Of his five older sisters, three were University of Sydney medical graduates as was his younger brother, Alec, a noted Rugby international and captain. Two sisters were Sydney science graduates.
After winning a scholarship David was educated at Sydney Grammar School. He then entered the University of Sydney with an exhibition, joining the Faculty of Engineering. After a year he transferred to the Faculty of Medicine and graduated MB ChM with second class honours in 1925. His junior residency was at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from 1926 to 1927, followed by a year at the Royal Hospital for Women in 1928. In 1930 he joined his brother-in-law, Tom Nelson, in general practice at Ashfield where he gained valuable practical medical experience over the next decade.
In 1933 David married Sheila Patricia Waugh, the daughter of Dr Richard Waugh. David and Sheila had three daughters, one of whom is Susan Beal who has a doctorate in medicine.
David served in the Second World War in the 2nd/7th Australian General Hospital in New Guinea, 114th AGH in Goulburn and 113th AGH at Concord with the rank of Major. During his period with 2nd/7th AGH David worked with Alec Sinclair who stimulated his interest in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine. As well as his work within the military hospital, David's colour blindness made the enemy camouflage stand out strikingly for him, and he was taken up in spotter aircraft to identify enemy positions.
After the war David began private practice as a consultant physician. He had passed the membership exam of the RACP in 1939 and was made a fellow in 1963. He was appointed honorary associate physician to RPAH (1946-1965) and visiting physician RGH at Concord (1947-1967) in what Dr Stanley Goulston called "his chosen pioneering fields of psychosomatic medicine and allergy in which he made significant personal contributions over a 30 year period." He was the author of various publications in the Medical Journal of Australia dealing with aspects of psychosomatic medicine.
His practice in psychosomatic medicine was unique at that time and was based on his war time psychiatric training and experience of people and their problems in general practice. He fulfilled a combined role of physician, psychiatrist and philosopher on which Hippocratic medicine was based. This was during the years of development of subspecialities and narrowing fields of practice which increased his value to his colleagues and patients.
Widely recognised as an outstanding teacher and tutor, David was chosen as one of the three lecturers of the College to teach the first of the Advanced Courses in Medicine in Singapore in the early 1960s. A keen sportsman, David Ross had a university blue in tennis and for many years enjoyed golf where he achieved a handicap of six. David and his wife were lifelong bridge enthusiasts. David Ross was a quiet, rather reserved man, who was devoted to his patients, his family - both immediate and extended, and his staunch collection of lifelong friends.
He died in 1990 at the age of eighty-eight.