Patrick Ramsay

The Hon. Sir Patrick Ramsay (20 September 1879 – 19 June 1962) was a British diplomat who was minister to Greece, Hungary and Denmark.

Early life The Honourable Patrick William Maule Ramsay was born on 20 September 1879. He was the second son of John Ramsay, 13th Earl of Dalhousie and the former Lady Ida Louisa Bennet. Among his siblings was older brother Arthur Ramsay, 14th Earl of Dalhousie (who married Lady Mary Heathcote-Drummond, a daughter of the 1st Earl of Ancaster), and younger brothers Sir Alexander Ramsay (who married Princess Patricia of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria), Charles Ramsay, and Lt. Ronald Ramsay.

He was educated at Winchester College and University College, Oxford. was promoted to Third Secretary in 1906, Second Secretary in 1911, and First Secretary in 1918. He served in Constantinople, Peking, Paris and St Petersburg before being posted to Stockholm in 1919. While at Stockholm he was promoted to Counsellor of Embassy and acted as chargé d'affaires several times during the absence of the minister, Sir Colville Barclay. Minister and Consul General in Budapest from 1933 to 1935, and Minister in Copenhagen from 1935 to 1939. Upon his retirement in 1939, he was succeeded as Minister in Denmark by Charles Howard Smith, the Assistant Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs.

Personal life On 15 October 1917, Ramsay was married to Dorothy Cynthia (née Surtees) Tower (1890–1957). Dorothy, the widow of Christopher Cecil Tower of Weald Hall, was a daughter of Brig. Gen. Sir Herbert Conyers Surtees of Mainsforth Hall.

David Patrick Maule Ramsay (1919–1978), who married Hélène Arvanitidi, a daughter of Leonidas Arvanitidi, in 1948.

Honours Patrick Ramsay was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1929 Birthday Honours and promoted to Knight Commander of the Order (KCMG) in the 1932 Birthday Honours. He retired from the Diplomatic Service in 1939 and lived in Portugal until his death, when he was buried in the British Cemetery, Lisbon. During the Second World War and until a short time before his death he held an honorary post in the British Embassy in Lisbon.