Harry Ross-Soden

Harry Ross-Soden was an Australian national. A member of the Melbourne University Boat Club, Ross-Soden rowed for Victoria in two Interstate Men’s Eights Championships (1911 and 1913) placing second in 1911. In the years before, he competed in Intervarsity Championships and won the title with Melbourne in 1911. The Australian eight with Ross-Soden as one of two rowers from Victoria won the Royal Henley Regatta beating Leander Club in the final. In Stockholm, however, they lost the quarter-final to Leander by ½-a-length. On both occasions, Ross-Soden was in the seventh seat.

From 1913, Ross-Soden rowed for the Banks Rowing Club. In World War I, he was a lieutenant in the AIF’s Machine Gun Corps from 1917. Soon after his transfer to France in 1918, he was placed on sick leave and returned to England. Later, he was called to coach the AIF eight that eventually won the 1919 Royal Peace Regatta at Henley in the last week prior to the race. For this they were awarded the King’s Cup, which in 1922 became the trophy for the winner of the men’s eight at the Australian Interstate Regatta. Ross-Soden studied law at Melbourne University and then worked as a solicitor. In 1920, he married his wife Anne (née Quigley).