James Ramsden
Minister of State for the Army
In office
1 April 1964  16 October 1964
Prime MinisterSir Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byFred Mulley
Secretary of State for War
In office
21 October 1963  1 April 1964
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterSir Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded byJoseph Godber
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Member of Parliament
for Harrogate
In office
11 March 1954  8 February 1974
Preceded byChristopher York
Succeeded byRobert Banks
Personal details
Born
James Edward Ramsden

(1923-11-01)1 November 1923
Liverpool, England
Died29 March 2020(2020-03-29) (aged 96)
Ripon, England
Political partyConservative
SpouseJuliet Ponsonby
Military career
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1942–51
RankLieutenant
Service number256071
UnitKing's Royal Rifle Corps
Battles/warsSecond World War

James Edward Ramsden PC (1 November 1923 – 29 March 2020) was a British Conservative politician. He was the last person to hold the office of Secretary of State for War.

Background

Ramsden was born in Liverpool in 1923,[1] the son of Captain Edward Ramsden and his wife Geraldine. His father was a brother of George Taylor Ramsden, a Coalition Unionist MP for Elland, while his mother was a sister of brothers Sir Frank O'Brien Wilson (a Royal Navy officer and early settler of Kenya) and Sir Murrough John Wilson (a Conservative MP for Richmond, Yorkshire).[2] During the Second World War, he served as a lieutenant with the King's Royal Rifle Corps.[3]

Political career

Ramsden sat as Member of Parliament for Harrogate from 1954 to 1974. He served under Harold Macmillan as Under-Secretary of State and Financial Secretary for War from 1960 to 1963 and under Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Secretary of State for War from 1963 to 1964. At the April 1964 reshuffle, the former cabinet positions of First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary of State for Air, along with Ramsden's post, were incorporated into an expanded Ministry of Defence, under the leadership of the new position of Secretary of State for Defence. Ramsden was appointed Minister of State for the Army at the Ministry of Defence, a post he held until the Douglas-Home government fell in October 1964. He was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in 1963.

Ramsden was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.[2][4]

Personal life

Ramsden married Juliet Ponsonby, daughter of Conservative politician Charles Ponsonby. Their youngest child was the artist Charlotte Cheverton, who died in a car accident in 1991.[5]

He died in March 2020 at the age of 96.[6]

References

  1. "RAMSDEN, James (b.1923). | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  2. 1 2 "Oral history: RAMSDEN, James (b.1923)". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  3. "No. 35893". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 February 1943. p. 699.
  4. "Rt Hon James Ramsden interviewed by Alexander Lock". British Library Sound Archive. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  5. "Charlotte Cheverton | Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland". womenofscotland.org.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  6. "Ramsden - Deaths Announcements - Telegraph Announcements". announcements.telegraph.co.uk.


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