Admiral Bertram Home Ramsay

Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay ,Royal Navy. He was killed on 25th January 1945, aged 61, when his aircraft crashed on take off from Toussus-Le-Noble airport near Paris when on his way to meet General Montgomery in Brussels. He was Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief and had planned “Operation Dynamo” ,the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in Late May and early June 1940. Afterwards he was involved with the “Torch” landings in North Africa as well as “Operation Husky”, the invasion of Sicily. He also prepared and oversaw “Operation Neptune” which was the very successful naval operation for the landings in Normandy on 6th June 1944. He was awarded the  KCB, KBE, MVO plus Grand Office Legion D’ Honneur (France), Commander Legion of Merit (USA) and the Order of Ushakov (Russia). He was the Son of Brigadier-General W.A. Ramsay and Mrs Ramsay of Bughtrig, Leitholm, Berwickshire and the husband of Lady Ramsay (nee Menzies). He is buried at St. Germain-En- Laye New Communal Cemetery, France.  During the Great War he commanded the small monitor M25 and then the destroyer HMS “Broke” where he was Mentioned in Dispatches. Ramsay was rightly considered to have been one of the very top Allied commanders of the Second World War and has not had the recognition he so richly deserved. A statue in his memory has been erected in Dover near where he planned the Dunkirk evacuation and a museum is planned for his home at Bughtrig to commemorate the Admiral. ( The photographs appear by courtesy of Will Ramsay of Bughtrig )