Centenary celebrations for Arrochar altruist

In a busy life which has seen him retire after completing four careers serving the public, Arrochar man Bill Ross celebrated his 100^th birthday with a special message from the King.

Born in Munlochy on the Black Isle in 1925 Bill walked two miles each way to school every day then joined the Air Training Corps as a cadet.

When he turned 18 he joined the RAF and was assigned to fly Liberators, an American-made, long range four-engined bomber.

He passed his flight engineer's course and got his wings, then awaited deployment with his first squadron.

He would serve in Egypt, Italy and India before demobbing from the RAF in 1947.

After his service he moved to Arrochar where he worked for Balfour Beattie and was involved in the construction of the Loch Sloy hydro electricity dam on Loch Lomond.

In the early 1950s Bill joined what was then known as the Admiralty Police and worked initially at the Loch Long torpedo range then at the Rosyth Dockyard.

He returned to Faslane in 1964 to open the Polaris School, a Royal Navy training facility for nuclear submarine crews and a key part of the infrastructure to support the fleet of submarines based there.

He then moved to the Glen Douglas munitions depot as an Inspector with responsibility for the security of the establishment. He left the Admiralty Police in 1969

Bill returned to Arrochar to work in the family construction business and then became the local Registrar in 1970, carrying out wedding services in local hotels, aboard boats on Loch Lomond and in his house, retiring in 2013.

Bill has two children, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

He puts longevity and never having had a day off sick down to not smoking or drinking.

Bill received his goodwill message from Dunbartonshire Deputy Lieutenant, Colonel Mike Edwards OBE, at a party with friends and family in his Arrochar home.