Ramsay, David P

Person

Ramsay, David P

David Prophet Ramsay was born in Perth on the 6th of July 1888, the youngest of five children of Jean Ann (née Prophet) and Alexander Ramsay, a china merchant. Ramsay attended The Glasgow School of Art from 1909 to 1913 as a full time student of drawing and painting. Ramsay previously studied textile design with Coates Bros of Perth from 1904 to 1909 before attending GSA. He visited countries such as Paris and Italy through proceeds of the Haldane scholarship in 1913. During the First World War, Ramsay served as a Corporal in the Highland Light Infantry. As a soldier, he produced a series of caricatures of his fellow soldiers, under the pseudonym "Sam Ray", a play on his surname, Ramsay. He joined as a Private in the 4th battalion of the Royal Highlanders (the Black Watch), and within less than a month after being promoted to Lieutenant on the 31st of July 1917, he was seriously injured at Pilckem Ridge. This battle was also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Pilckem Ridge phase took place between the 31st of July and the 2nd of August 1917. Ramsay's injuries were so severe that he was nearly left for dead, but a Canadian doctor managed to save his life. After the war, in 1923, he married Beatrice Elizabeth Hewat and set up a studio as a portrait painter. He was commissioned to paint then Princess Elizabeth, (HM Queen Elizabeth II) at Glamis Castle. The same year, he was elected the president of the Dundee Art Society. He displayed his work at exhibitions across the UK. Ramsay died on the 11th of January 1944, aged 56. In recognition, Ramsay became the first one-person memorial exhibition at Perth Museum and Gallery later that year, which showed over 169 of his works. A second exhibition was held in 1988, to celebrate a centenary of his birth. Ramsay is commemorated on The Glasgow School of Art's First World War Roll of Honour.

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Sources: Perth and Kinross Council: http://www.pkc.gov.uk/article/6582/RAMSAY---David-Prophet-Ramsay-1888-1944; Ancestry: http://www.ancestry.co.uk; Scotland's People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk; BBC Your Paintings: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/david-p-ramsay/paintings/slideshow#/0; The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture by Peter J. M McEwan; Lives of the First World War: https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org.

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