David Ross (aviator)
David Ross (15 March 1902 – 12 June 1984) was an Australian aviator and intelligence officer. He was notably the consul of the British Empire to Portuguese Timor during the Second World War. Later in life he served as Regional Director of Civil Aviation for Western Australia. Early life and career Ross was born in Australia on 15 March 1902. At the age of 13 he received a scholarship opportunity to join the Royal Australian Navy, which he accepted. During the-then ongoing First World War he trained with the Royal Australian Navy at Jervis Bay. Following the war Ross was sent to England to study the field of naval aviation, after which he was deployed to Point Cook. In 1931 Ross transferred out of the armed forces and into the civil aviation branch of the Department of Defence, where he worked with Imperial Airways and Qantas to establish air routes between Australia, Singapore, and London. Consul Following the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe and rising tensions with the Japanese Empire in the Pacific, the Australian government's External Affairs Department sent Ross to Portuguese Timor to shore up the British Empire's relationship with Portugal. While serving as consul,