Thomas Ross was born in Errol, Perth, Scotland on 10 November 1839 and was articled to Alexander Kirkland (1824-1892) in Glasgow from c.1855 to 1861. He then worked as an assistant at Kirkland's practice Kirkland & Hamilton in Glasgow in 1861; to Charles Wilson (1810-1863) in Glasgow in 1861-62; and to David McGibbon (1831-1902) in Edinburgh from 1862 to 1872 when he was taken into partnership by McGibbon as McGibbon & Ross. Following McGibbon's death in 1902, his son, Alfred (Fred) Lightly MacGibbon (1874-1915) took over his father's interest in the practice as a partner. The partnership was dissolved in 1914. Ross worked on few commissions after this date and effectively retired as an architect in 1916.
Ross was was a member of the Edinburgh Architectural Association and was elected its President in 1880. In 1908 he was appointed the founder commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, and in 1910 he received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh. In 1918 he became Professor of Antiquities at the Royal Scottish Academy. He died on 4 December 1930.
See: Dictionary of Scottish Architects 1660-1980 [Link below]
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
'Obituary'. Royal Institute of British Architects Journal vol. 58, 1950-51 p. 108
Walker, David. ‘The Architecture of MacGibbon & Ross: The Background to the Books’ in Studies in Scottish Antiquity Presented to Stewart Cruden. Edited by David Breeze. Edinburgh: John Donald, Edinburgh, 1984 pp. 391-449