Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Great War ‘First Day of the Battle of Loos’ D.C.M. group of four awarded to Private W. Ramsay, Royal Scots Fusiliers

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.V.R. (7478 Pte. W. Ramsay, 1/R. Sco. Fus.); 1914 Star, with (copy) clasp (7478 Pte. W. Ramsay, 1/R. Sc. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (L-7478 Pte. W. Ramsay, R.S. Fus.), generally good very fine (4)
£1000-1200

D.C.M. London Gazette 16 November 1915:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on 25 September 1915, near Hooge. He was wounded early in the attack but, on his return, finding that the 24th Trench Mortar Battery was short-handed, he immediately joined the battery, rendering great assistance, notwithstanding the pain from his broken shin bone.’

William Ramsay arrived in France on 14 August 1914, as a Private in the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, in which capacity he would have first gone into action at Jemappes on the 23rd - with no time to entrench, his unit lost two officers and 100 other ranks killed or wounded. A staff officer, who visited the Battalion after it had been in action for five weeks, noted:

‘We came into the field occupied by the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Here they were drawn up, erect and grim as usual, but what a different regiment from the one which had swung out of Lyndhurst camp less than five weeks before! That magnificently smart regiment of once a thousand men was now reduced to about 70 men, with a junior subaltern in command. The men were mostly without caps, coats, or even putties, war-stained and ragged, but still full of British pluck and pride, with a “never say die” look upon their faces, which made the heart swell with pride at being connected with such splendid specimens of manhood.’

Wounded in the course of winning his D.C.M. on the first day of the battle of Loos in September 1915, Ramsay later transferred to the Royal Fusiliers.