Private William Ramage

Private William Brown Ramage, 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s ( West Riding Regiment ). He died of wounds, aged 29, in the 4th Casualty Clearing Station at Westvleteren, Belgium, aged 29, on 11th October 1917 of wounds received in action during the Third Battle of Ypres. He had been born in Whittinghame was the son of James and the late Isabella Ramage of Beanston Gardens, Haddington and the husband of Helen Ramage of 10 Kirk Street, Leith. He had been employed as a chaffeur at Milfield hill House in Kirknewton parish when he enlisted in the Army Service Corps. He went to France in September 1916 and was transferred to the West Riding Regiment. He is buried in Dozinghem Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Flanders, Belgium. The photographs give some idea of the atrocious state of the Flanders battlefield where the incessant shelling had destroyed the fragile drainage systems. (  Two of his brothers also fell during the War, John with the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders and Robert with the 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. Both are commemorated on the Haddington War Memorial ).