Career
Ross and Norris both became sports journalists in 1950. In 1951, they published Get to Your Marks, and later in 1951 they founded an agency to provide facts and figures to Fleet Street, setting out, in Norris McWhirter's words: "to supply facts and figures to newspapers, yearbooks, encyclopaedias and advertisers."
While building up their accounts, they both worked as sports journalists. One of the athletes they knew and covered was runner Christopher Chataway, the employee at Guinness who recommended them to Sir Hugh Beaver. After an interview in 1954 in which the Guinness directors enjoyed testing the twins' knowledge of records and unusual facts, the brothers agreed to start work on the book that would become the Guinness Book of Records. In August 1955, the first slim green volume - 198 pages long - was at the bookstalls, and in four more months it was the UK's number one non-fiction best-seller. Both brothers were regulars on the BBC show Record Breakers. They were noted for their photographic memory, enabling them to provide detailed answers to any questions from the audience about entries in the Guinness Book of Records. Norris continued on the programme after Ross's death.
In 1958, long after the legend of William Webb Ellis had become engrained in rugby culture, Ross McWhirter managed to rediscover his grave in "le cimetière du vieux château" at Menton in Alpes Maritimes (it has since been renovated by the French Rugby Federation).
Read more about this topic: Ross McWhirter
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