King of the Cocos Islands was a title given by the press to John Clunies-Ross, a Scottish sea captain, and other members of his family.
He went to live on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in 1827. Queen Victoria granted the islands in perpetuity to the Clunies-Ross family in 1886. Thus, the title to the islands was claimed by his descendants until 1978 when John Cecil Clunies-Ross was forced to sell the islands to the Commonwealth of Australia for £2.5m ($4.75m). The Commonwealth had already been administering the islands since 1955.
Clunies-Ross currently lives in Perth, Western Australia, but his son John George Clunies-Ross (born 1957) lives on West Island.
| Order | King | Regnal Name | Born-Died | From | Until |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | John Clunies-Ross | Ross I | 1786–1854 | 1827 | 26 May 1854 |
| 2. | John George Clunies-Ross | Ross II | 1823–1871 | 26 May 1854 | 8 June 1871 |
| 3. | George Clunies-Ross | Ross III | 1842–1910 | 1871 | 7 July 1910 |
| 4. | Sydney Clunies-Ross | Ross IV | 1868–1944 | 7 July 1910 | 14 August 1944 |
| 5. | John Cecil Clunies-Ross | Ross V | 1928- | 14 August 1944 | 1978 |