Robert Ramsay

Who was Robert Ramsay?

Robert Ramsay, Australian statesman, Postmaster-General of Victoria on two occasions in the 1870s.

Ramsay was a native of Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland, but his parents emigrated to Victoria when he was a child of four, and he was educated at the Scotch College in Melbourne. He studied law at University of Melbourne, and subsequently became a member of a well-known firm of solicitors in the city. He married in 1868 Isabella Catherine Urquhart, second daughter of Roderick Urquhart, of Yangery Park. In October 1870 entered the assembly for East Bourke in the Conservative and free trade interest. He was a member of the government of James Goodall Francis in 1872-1874. He was subsequently Postmaster-General of Victoria in the administration of George Kerferd; he held the same office in conjunction with the ministry of education under Sir James McCulloch; and for a short term in 1880 he was chief secretary and minister of education in the first administration of James Service. He died on 23 May 1882 in Melbourne.