23 Facts About Robbie Ross

Robert Baldwin Ross was a British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde, to whom he was a devoted friend, lover and literary executor.

Robbie Ross's father, John Robbie Ross, was a Baldwinite and a Toronto lawyer who had a very successful political career, serving as Solicitor General for Upper Canada, Attorney General, Speaker of the Legislative Council, President of the Legislative Council, director, and, for a time, president, of the Grand Trunk Railway, and Canadian senator.

Robbie Ross was the youngest of five children, with two sisters, Mary and Maria, and two brothers, John and Alexander.

John fulfilled his duties as senator largely in absentia until he was chosen as Speaker of the Senate in 1869, the year of Robbie Ross's birth, making his return to Canada unavoidable.

Robbie Ross found work as a journalist and critic but he did not escape scandal.

Robbie Ross is believed to have become Oscar Wilde's first male lover in 1886, even before he went to Cambridge.

On 1 March 1895, Wilde, Douglas, and Robbie Ross approached a solicitor, Charles Octavius Humphreys, with the intention of suing the Marquess of Queensberry, Douglas's father, for criminal libel.

Robbie Ross found Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel, in Knightsbridge, with Reginald Turner.

Robbie Ross became Wilde's literary executor, which meant that he had to track down and purchase the rights to all of Wilde's texts, which had been sold off along with Wilde's possessions when Wilde was declared bankrupt.

Robbie Ross was assisted in this task by Christopher Sclater Millard, who compiled a definitive bibliography of Wilde's writings.

Robbie Ross gave Wilde's sons the rights to all their father's works along with the money earned from their publication or performance while he was executor.

One of the actors was Frederick Stanley Smith with whom Robbie Ross had a relationship.

In 1908, some years after Wilde's death, Robbie Ross produced the definitive edition of his works.

Robbie Ross was responsible for commissioning Jacob Epstein to produce the sculpture that can now be seen on Wilde's tomb.

Robbie Ross even requested that Epstein design a small compartment for Ross's own ashes.

From 1901 to 1908, in personal and professional partnership with the art critic More Adey, Robbie Ross managed the Carfax Gallery, a small commercial gallery in London co-founded by John Fothergill and the artist William Rothenstein.

Robbie Ross was a close friend of Wilde's sons Vyvyan Holland and Cyril Holland.

Maud Allan, an actress who had played Wilde's Salome in a performance authorised by Robbie Ross, was identified as a member of the "cult".

Robbie Ross unsuccessfully sued Billing for libel, causing a national sensation in Britain.

Later, in 1918, Robbie Ross was preparing to travel to Melbourne, to open an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, when he died suddenly in London on 5 October 1918.

In 1950, on the 50th anniversary of Wilde's death, an urn containing Robbie Ross's ashes was placed into Wilde's tomb in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Robbie Ross was able to rely on an allowance and then an inheritance from his wealthy family, leaving him free to pursue his interests.

Robbie Ross's book Masques and Phases is a collection of previously published short stories and reviews.