February 25th Charles Campbell Ross (Birth)
Born on this day in 1849, Charles Campbell Ross (1849 - 1920) was a Penzance banker and politician who vanished from Cornish society to avoid bankruptcy only to resurface as the first curator of the Whitechapel Gallery in London (pictured below).

The grandson of one of the founders of the first Penzance bank, Joseph Carne (Batten, Carne and Carne), Ross served as Mayor of Penzance five times in the late 1870s and early 1880s and was Member of Parliament for St. Ives (1881–1885).  

A wealthy man who built Morrab House and estate (now Morrab Library and Morrab Gardens), Ross became engulfed in scandal when the bank failed.  Accused of fraud he disappeared and turned up in London where he became the first curator of the renowned Whitechapel Art Gallery which expanded into an adjacent building that was constructed through the largesse of John Passmore Edwards (March 24th).

                                                                                                           

 


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