Irving Daniel Ramsay was born near Armour, Douglas County, South
Dakota on 15 April 1888. After living in Kansas and Missouri, His Father
had settled on 159 acres in the southwest quarter of Section19,
Township98, north of Range 62 and west of the Fifth Principal Meridian
in Dakota Territory.
At about 4 years of age, he was carried by
his parents on a long trek by covered wagon to Waskada, Manitoba,
Canada. From the beginning of his 6 year education at a one-room
schoolhouse which was built by his father and a neighbor, Irving was a
promising student. His parents, Daniel and Elizabeth Charlotte (Kelly)
Ramsay, sent him to advanced school at Waskada, nine miles distant from
their farm. He later attended the regional senior school at Brandon.
About 1910 Irving Ramsay was admitted to the Medical School of Mc
Gill University at Montreal and after 5 years of study, he was graduated
and awarded the M.D.C.M. (Medical Doctor, Master of Chirurgy) degree
23April 1915.
While at Mc Gill, Irving became acquainted with a
Scot immigrant named Alex Cooper who was a bellhop and ambitious to move
to the farmland of western Canada. Irving helped Alex move to the Ramsay
farm at Waskada and shortly thereafter, Daniel Ramsay sponsored the
immigration of Dave and Elizabeth Cooper, siblings of Alex, to the
Waskada area. Interesting results of these events was the marriage of
Elizabeth Cooper to Edourous Ramsay and Dave Cooper to Irene Ramsay.
While at Mc Gill, during his senior year, Irving Ramsay was on the
wrestling team and won the 135 pound class championship of eastern
Canadian colleges. After graduation from Mc Gill Dr. Irving Ramsay
volunteered in the British Medical Corp as a First Lieutenant and served
in World War I on hospital ships at Salonika and the Straits of the
Dardenelles. At the end of the war, he was a Captain of the Royal Army
Medical Corp and returned to Canada for a brief visit.
From 1920
to 1932 Dr. Irving Daniel Ramsay served the British Government as a
specialist in communicable diseases control at Baghdad, Iraq. He also
did advanced study in bone and brain surgery at the Medical School at
Vienna and was a guest lecturer in Tropical disease. He became a
linguist, fluent in French, German, Spanish and Arabic besides his
native English. His investments in the London stock market grew to a
significant amount.
On the occasion of his Birthday in 1929, His
Majesty King George V of England approved the award of the Honour of the
Order of the British Empire (Civil Division) I.D. Ramsay, B.A., M.D.,
C.M., Surgeon, at Muntafiq Liwa, Hasiriyah, Iraq. This award, the Order
of Knighthood, was Dated 3 June 1929.
Dr. Ramsay’s term of
service with the Iraq Health Service ended 30 May 1932 and was followed
on the 6th of March 1933 by notification by the British Minister at
Vienna that a license had been granted him to wear the Insignia of the
Fourth Class of the Order of Al Rafidain which had been granted by the
King of Iraq.
After his service in Iraq ended, Dr. Ramsay
returned to America. He visited his mother and other relatives in
Colorado and made plans to settle permanently there. He took the
examination of the Colorado State Board of Medical Examiners and on 28
October 1932 he was notified that he had passed with “one of the finest
averages” given by the board for some time. At this time, he also made
plans to purchase the Rose Medical Hospital in Denver. He attended the
1932 World Olympic Games in Los Angeles, visited in Seattle a nurse he
had known during his service in the Middle East. He and the nurse became
engaged to be married.
In late 1932 he returned to London
to conduct business and then went on to Vienna for Study and a lecture
series. His path then took him to Russia, which he crossed by the
Trans-Siberian Railroad to Vladivostok, and to Japan. Somewhere on these
last travels he ate improperly cooked pork and developed trichinosis. In
Osaka Japan, he was hospitalized and treated at St Barnabas Hospital,
Dr. Ramsay, despite debilitating fevers helped to diagnose his own
illness, advanced trichinosis of the brain. Knowing this, he returned to
his hospital bed and died the next day, 7 June 1933. He was cremated and
his ashes were sent to his mother in Haxtun, Colorado for internment at
the family cemetery plot.
Plaque attached to his headstone
records his many achievements.
IRVING DANIEL RAMSAY 1888-1933
The attached biography came from the book: "Cross, Duffey and
Ramsay Lines", by Lowell M. Duffey and Marcia P. Peura Published by
Lowell M. Duffey 1998.
Many thanks to the Ramsay Family for
allowing me to place it here and to Terri for obtaining it for me!
If you have questions, contributions, or problems with this site, email:
Coordinator - Rebecca Maloney
State Coordinator: Rebecca Maloney
Asst. State Coordinators: Betty Baker
If you have questions or problems with this site, email the County Coordinator. Please do not ask for specfic research on your family. I am unable to do your personal research. I do not have access to additional records.
