Private George Ramsey 33456, 79th Company, Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)

The following appeared under the above headline in the ‘Derbyshire Times’ of 2 June 1917:

“News has reached Mrs Ramsey, 72 Nesbit Street, Hillstown, of the death of her husband, Pte, George Ramsey, Machine Gun Corps, who was killed in action in Salonica* on April 24th.

In a letter to the deceased soldiers widow, Lieut. Andrew writes: ‘There is I fear little to console you in your grief at the loss of your splendid husband, but it must at least take a little of the sadness away that he died as the gallant and fine fellow he always proved himself to be. I was his section officer and chose him for one of the most important posts in the Company. He went into the attack with me, and in spite of an artillery barrage without precedent on this Front, he never wavered but pushed forward and remained cool and resolute until the end. He was one of my right hand men, a man of whom I was proud.

He will be greatly missed by his comrades, who wish me to convey to you their deepest sympathy.’

Pte. Ramsey, who in pre-war days was employed as a paper maker at Rawcliffe, near Goole, was a Territorial and was mobilised in September 1914. He went to Salonica on July 3rd last year….. He leaves a widow and one young child. Pte. Ramsey was 25.”

[*Today’s Thessalonica, Greece].

33456 Private George Ramsey, of the 79th Company Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) was born in Snaith, Yorkshire in 1892. His parents were Charles Ramsey (born in the Marfleet district of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire circa 1836) and Mahala Theresa Ramsey nee Barnitt (born Rawcliffe, near Goole, Yorkshire 1862). They had married in the Goole Registration District (RD) in 1892).

The 1901 census found the 9-year-old George Ramsey living with his parents and siblings on High Street, Snaith, with his father, a Grocer, running his own business at that location.

George’s siblings, all also born in Snaith, were: Charles (born 1885); Elizabeth (1886); Emmeline (1890); Walter Raymond (1897); and Edwin (1900).

The death of Charles Ramsey was recorded in the Goole RD in 1908. George would have been aged 16 years when his father died.

The 1911 census located the now 19-year-old George Ramsey living with his widowed mother and his siblings at 27 Dobella Road, Rawcliffe Bridge, Rawcliffe, Yorkshire, with George employed as a Cutter by the Turner Paper Mill Company.

One page of George Ramsey’s service records has survived. Combining data from that, the publication ‘Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919’, and his medal card, confirms that he enlisted in York, and originally served as a Private in the East Yorkshire Regiment (The Duke of York's Own) with service number 3252.

In 1916 in the Mansfield RD (which covered Glapwell near Bolsover, Derbyshire) George Ramsey married Susan Humphries (born in the Hills Town district of Bolsover 1895). And, a year later (in Hills Town), their daughter Joyce was born.

His Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) entry confirms that George Ramsey died on 24 April 1917 (when he would have been 25 years of age) and that his remains are interred in Doiran Military Cemetery:

“[which] is situated in the north of Greece close to the North Macedonia border”. CWGC adds that: “The graves are almost entirely those of officers and men of the 22nd and 26th Divisions and largely reflect the fighting of April and May 1917 (the attacks on the Petit-Couronne)…..”.

In 1919 at Bolsover Hill Top Methodist Church, George’s widow, Susan Ramsey nee Humphries, married Frederick Burrows (born Ilkeston, Derbyshire 1890). And the 1921 census found Susan (aged 25) and new husband Frederick (31) living at 84 Selwyn Street, in the Hills Town district of Bolsover, with Frederick employed as a Coal Getter* by the Glapwell Colliery Company. In the same household were Joyce Ramsey (aged 4), Susan’s daughter from her marriage to George, plus Freda (aged 1) and Doris (newborn) Burrows, Susan’s daughters from her new marriage.

[*Working at the pit bottom sending tubs (wagons) of newly mined coal along to where they would be taken to the surface in the cages (lifts)].