The 42-year-old tycoon is said to be worth a total of £873 million, according to the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List, published yesterday and is one of at least three families with fishing interests who are mentioned.

Together with his school friend Charles Dunstone (worth £904 million and the 83rd richest man in the country) they founded the now iconic Carphone Warehouse Company over 20 years ago.

David Ross, aged 42, is also a director of Cosalt, the Grimsby-based marine support, industrial workwear and fishing gear company and non-executive chairman of the National Express rail and road transport group.

He is the son of John Ross, former head of Ross Trawlers, which once owned one of Europe's largest fishing fleets, with deep sea vessels based at Grimsby, Hull and Aberdeen.

Ross Trawlers was also a highly innovative company, helping to pioneer new types of freezer and stern fishing trawlers in the 1960s. But like all distant water companies it fell victim to the Cod War agreement which saw British vessels excluded from Icelandic fishing grounds - and later those of Norway and the White Sea off Russia.

David was in Grimsby recently to see his father honoured by the town for his fishing enterprise when he was made High Steward of the borough. His grandfather J Carl Ross was the driving force behind the Ross fishing and food empire, which became one of the fastest growing companies in the UK at one period.

It was also the organisation which spawned today's giant Young's Seafood group, which still has its headquarters at Ross House in Grimsby. The family moved to Grimsby from the Yorkshire Coast at the end of the 19th century when the fishing industry was starting to boom.

Also named in the Sunday Times Rich List is Scottish oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood and family, which also owns J.W. Holdings, Scotland's largest fishing company and employing over 400 people. He is said to be worth £890-million and is the 85th riches man in Britain. Most of the money has come from oil and he is is spending much of his fortune on Third World charity work in Africa and supporting British volunteers working overseas.

A new entrant on the list is Douglas Craig and his family, owned of the Aberdeen fishing and oil services industrial group. He comes in at at 501 in the list and worth £160-million. The company owns and manages around nine fishing vessels through its subsidiary Grampian Sea Fishing.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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