Sir Bertram Ramsay | |
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 | |
| Birth name | Bertram Home Ramsay |
| Born | (1883-01-20)20 January 1883 London, England |
| Died | 2 January 1945(1945-01-02) (aged 61) Toussus-le-Noble, France |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Royal Navy |
| Service years | 1898–1945 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Conflicts | First World War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Member of the Royal Victorian Order Mention in Despatches (two) Légion d'honneur (France) Legion of Merit (United States) Order of Ushakov (USSR) |
AdmiralSir Bertram Home Ramsay,KCB,KBE,MVO (20 January 1883 – 2 January 1945) was aRoyal Navy officer. He commanded thedestroyerHMS Broke during theFirst World War. In theSecond World War, he was responsible for theDunkirk evacuation in 1940 and planning and commanding the naval forces in theinvasion of France in 1944.
Ramsay was born inHampton Court Palace,[1] into an old family (seeRamsay Baronets). He attendedColchester Royal Grammar School.
On 26 February 1929, Ramsay married Helen Margaret Menzies, daughter of Colonel Charles Thomson Menzies. They had two sons,
Ramsay joined theRoyal Navy in 1898. As a naval cadet, he was posted toHMS Crescent in April 1899.[2] Later serving onHMSBritannia, he became amidshipman within a year.[3] By the middle of 1902 he was an actingsub-lieutenant, and he was confirmed in this rank on 15 September 1902.[4] He was promoted tolieutenant on 15 December 1904.[5]
The 1911 census reveals him serving as Flag Lieutenant to Rear AdmiralDouglas Gamble onHMS Bacchante in the Mediterranean. The ship was captained at the time byReginald Tyrwhitt.[6]
During the First World War, Ramsay was given his first command,HMS M25, a smallmonitor, in August 1915. For two years his ship was part of theDover Patrol off the Belgian coast. Promoted to commander on 30 June 1916, in October 1917 he took command of another Dover Patrol vessel, thedestroyerHMS Broke.[3][7][8] On 9 May 1918, his ship took part in theSecond Ostend Raid, a follow-up to theZeebrugge Raid, for which he wasmentioned in despatches.[3]
In 1935 Ramsay resigned his post as Chief of Staff toSir Roger Backhouse C-in-C, Home Fleet who had refused to delegate his authority.[9]
Ramsay retired from the navy in 1938, but was coaxed out of retirement byWinston Churchill one year later to help deal with theAxis threat. Promoted tovice-admiral, he was namedCommander-in-Chief, Dover, on 24 August 1939. His duties included overseeing the defence against possible destroyer raids, the protection of cross-Channel military traffic and the denial of the passage through theStraits of Dover bysubmarines.[3]
As Vice-Admiral Dover, Ramsay was responsible for theDunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo. Working from the tunnels beneathDover Castle, he and his staff worked for nine days straight to rescue troops trapped in France by the German forces.[10] For his success in bringing home 338,226 British and allied soldiers from the mole and beaches ofDunkirk, he was asked to personally report on the operation toKing George VI and was made aKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath.[3]
After Operation Dynamo was completed, he was faced with the enormous problems of defending the waters off Dover from the expectedGerman invasion. For nearly two years, he commanded forces striving to maintain control against the Germans, gaining a secondMention in Despatches.[3] Ramsay was in command when the German battleshipsScharnhorst andGneisenau together with escorts passed through theChannel in February 1942. Though the British had made plans to deal with this (Operation Fuller), British forces were taken by surprise, and failed in their efforts to stop them.
Ramsay was to be appointed the Naval Force Commander for the invasion of Europe on 29 April 1942, but the invasion was postponed and he was transferred to become deputy naval commander of theAllied invasion ofNorth Africa.[3]
During the Allied invasion ofSicily (Operation Husky) in July 1943, Ramsay was Naval Commanding Officer, Eastern Task Force, and prepared the amphibious landings.[3]
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Ramsay was reinstated to the Active List on 26 April 1944 and promoted to the rank of admiral on 27 April 1944.[11] He was appointed Naval Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Naval Expeditionary Force for the invasion.[3]
In this, he executed what has been described by historian Correlli Barnett as a "never surpassed masterpiece of planning"[12] — coordinating and commanding a fleet of almost 7,000 vessels to delivering over 160,000 men onto the beaches of Normandy on D-Day alone, with over 875,000 disembarked by the end of June.
He defused a potential conflict between Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the British Sovereign, King George VI, when Churchill informed the King that he intended to observe theD-Day landings from aboardHMS Belfast, acruiser assigned to bombardment duties for the operation. The King, himself a seasoned sailor and a veteran of theBattle of Jutland in the First World War, likewise announced that he would accompany his Prime Minister. The two were at civil loggerheads until meeting with Admiral Ramsay, who flatly refused to take responsibility for the safety of either of them. Ramsay cited the danger to both the King and the Prime Minister, the risks of the planned operational duties of HMSBelfast, and the fact that both the King and Churchill would be needed at home in case the landings went badly and immediate decisions were required. This settled the matter and both Churchill and King George VI remained ashore on D-Day.[13]
While the port of Antwerp was vital for the Allies after D-Day, AdmiralsCunningham and Ramsay warned SHAEF andMontgomery that the port was of no use while the Germans held the approaches; sayingit would be of much use as Timbuktu! But Montgomery postponed theBattle of the Scheldt, and the delay in opening the port was a grave blow to the Allied build-up before winter approached.[14]
On 2 January 1945, Ramsay was killed when his plane crashed on takeoff atToussus-le-Noble Airport southwest of Paris. He was en route to a conference with Field MarshalBernard Montgomery inBrussels.[3] Ramsay was interred inSaint-Germain-en-Laye New Communal Cemetery.[15] A memorial to all who died in the crash was erected at Toussus-le-Noble in May 1995.[16]
A statue of Ramsay was erected in November 2000 at Dover Castle, close to where he had planned the Dunkirk evacuation.[3] His name also appears on theColchester Royal Grammar School war memorial and a portrait hangs in the school. A secondary school in Middlesbrough was named in his honour, but has since been renamed at least twice.
In February 2020, theScottish Borders Council announced plans to build a museum at the family home of Admiral Ramsay. "A former garden store will be converted at Bughtrig House inColdstream to create the museum in his honour,"BBC News reported.[19]
Admiral Ramsay's legacy has been remembered by the Royal Navy; they have used his name for the Apprenticeship Centre atHMS Collingwood in Fareham, the Ramsay Building which was opened by his son in March 2012.[20]
| Military offices | ||
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| Preceded by Post created | Commander-in-Chief, Dover 1939–1942 | Succeeded by |
