Henry Ross

Henry Ross (1829 – 5 December 1854) was a Canadian-Australian gold miner who died in the Eureka Rebellion at the Ballarat gold fields in the British Colony of Victoria, now the state of Victoria in Australia. Ross is particularly remembered for his part in the creation of the rebel miners' flag, since named the Eureka Flag. Ross was born in Toronto, in the British colony of Upper Canada which had amalgamated into the colonial Province of Canada by the time he departed. He became a gold miner in California during the gold rush and probably arrived at Melbourne on the Magnolia in November 1852, along with Charles Doudiet and three other Canadians. Ross was known on the goldfields as the 'bridegroom' of the miners' flag. The flag, called the Southern Cross flag (for the celestial asterism of the same name), was created as a symbol by miners revolting against the colonial authorities in 1854. There is no evidence of who exactly designed the flag but Ross took the design to three women - Anastasia Withers, Anne Duke and Anastasia Hayes, to ask them to sew it and have it ready in time for the meeting taking place at Bakery Hill at 2.00pm on Wednesday the 29 November 1854. On 30 November 1854, Ross unfurled the flag At Bakery Hill and led the march from Bakery Hill to Eureka Stockade; behind him followed about 1,000 diggers, some armed with rifles, many only armed with picks and shovels. Ross, initially referred to as lieutenant but later as captain, was given the command of a division of the rebel miners by a meeting of the seven captains of the rebellion who met at Eureka that afternoon to organise the defence of Eureka. Later that afternoon, Ross raised the flag on the temporary flagpole that had been erected at Bakery Hill. Sword in hand, his division gathered at the foot of the flagstaff. Peter Lalor jumped onto a stump and asked those around him to take an oath to the Southern Cross. He pointed his right hand towards the Southern Cross and delivered the diggers oath: