1029, Private Gordon Duberry RAMSAY — 17th Lancers

Baptism

GDR's baptismal registration (in 1848) is rather unusual in that it refers to his birth and baptism in 1831, 17 years earlier. Why was his baptism in 1831 not registered at the time? Why was it left until 1848, shortly after his father's death in 1847 (though his mother was still alive), about the time he set off for England (where he enlisted in the 17th Lancers)? Is there any connection with his decision to move to England? Did he, for example, think he would need a baptismal certificate to prove who he was? Did recruits have to produce any proof of identity? If so, what?

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Baptisms solemnized in the parish of Saint Catherine in the County of Middlesex [Jamaica] in the year of our lord 1848

When baptized: April 27 1831

Child's name: Gordon Duberry

Born 28 March 1831

Parents name: William Ramsay and Mary Lloyd his wife

Abode: Dawkins Pier [?] St Catherine

Quality Trade or Profession: Custos of St Catherine

By whom the Ceremony was performed: Revd Thomas Leacock

According to the affidavit of Robert Cayill [?] of the Parish of Saint Catherine Esquire, a record of the Baptism not having been made at the time the Baptism was performed

Witness my hand this 14 day of August 1848

J.N. Garland [?]

Offg [officiating?] Minister of St Catherine

I Robert Cayill of the parish of St. Catherine Esquire declare that Gordon Duberry Ramsay the son of the late William Ramsay Custos of said parish and Mary Lloyd his wife was born on the 28th day of March 1831 at Dawkin's Pier in this parish and that he was on the 27th day of April in the same year Baptized by the Revd Thomas Leacock, Clerk in Holy Orders of the United Church of England and Ireland [?] as by Law established, at the said Pier [?] in the presence of this Deponent and other persons, this Deponent having been one of the Sponsors of the said Gordon Duberry Ramsay.

Robert Cayill

Declared before me this 14th day of August 1848 in the Town of St Jago de la Vega [?] Parish of St Catherine

J. C. Assliff [?] J.P.

[PB, January 2017: GDR's Jamaican baptismal registration is available online at FamilySearch.com. A further search on 12.1.2017 provided a Christening record, and references to numerous other "Ramsays". There were no other references to "Duberry", though many names in which the second initial was "D".]

Name: Gordon Duberry Ramsay

Event Type: Christening

Event Date: 27 Apr 1841

Event Place: All Parishes, Jamaica

Gender:

Birth Date

Father's Name: William Ramsay

Mother's Name: Mary Lloyd

Page: 33

Line Number: 118

GS Film number: 1291717

Digital Folder Number: 004620477

Image Number: 00260

[Source: "Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VHD2-V3T: 4 December 2014), Gordon Duberry Ramsay, 27 Apr 1841, Christening; citing p. 33, All Parishes, Jamaica, Registrar General's Department, Spanish Town; FHL microfilm 1,291,717.]

The 1848 affidavit by one of GDR's "sponsors" (godparents) in 1831, says GDR's father was William Ramsay, now deceased. (He died in 1847.)

GDR's sisters

Records exist for the existence of at least two (younger) sisters. Transcripts follow, but no images are available. It is possible that there more information in the originals, but unlikely.

A sister, Louisa Anne Ramsay, was baptised in 1839.

Name: Louisa Anne Ramsay

Gender: Female

Christening Date: 12 Jun 1839

Christening Place: St. Catherine, Middlesex, Jamaica

Birth Date:

Birthplace:

Death Date:

Name Note:

Race:

Father's Name: William Ramsay

Father's Birthplace:

Father's Age:

Mother's Name: Mary Lloyd

Mother's Birthplace:

Mother's Age:

Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I03873-9

System Origin: Jamaica-EASy

GS Film number: 1291713

Reference ID: item 2 v 5 p 195 St Catherine

[Source: "Jamaica Births and Baptisms, 1752-1920," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XNJJ-455 : 8 December 2014), Mary Lloyd in entry for Louisa Anne Ramsay, ; citing Jamaica, reference item 2 v 5 p 195 St Catherine; FHL microfilm 1,291,713.]

Another sister, Mary Blizard Wilhelmina Ramsay, was baptised in 1841.

Name: Mary Blizard Wilhelmina Ramsay

Gender: Female

Christening Date: 08 Mar 1841

Christening Place: Parish of St. Catherine, Middlesex, Jamaica

Birth Date:

Birthplace:

Death Date:

Name Note:

Race:

Father's Name: William, Hon.Ble Ramsay

Father's Birthplace:

Father's Age:

Mother's Name: Mary Ramsay

Mother's Birthplace:

Mother's Age:

Indexing Project (Batch) Number: I03836-2

System Origin: Jamaica-EASy

GS Film number: 1291714

Reference ID: p. 305, no. 67

[Source: "Jamaica Births and Baptisms, 1752-1920," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XNJQ-TLN : 8 December 2014), William, Hon.Ble Ramsay in entry for Mary Blizard Wilhelmina Ramsay; citing Jamaica, reference p. 305, no. 67; FHL microfilm 1,291,714.]

[PB The baptism of a "Francis Gordon Ramsey", born 12 October 1835 in "Peter's Jamaica", is recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, on 5 November 1835. No parents' names or profession are shown. (I wonder why not? Significant?) There may well be no connection, especially given the different location etc. But the inclusion of both "Gordon" and "Ramsey" in the name is intriguing. See here.]

GDR comes to England

Such was Gordon Duberry Ramsay's notoriety for atrocities he committed in Jamaica in October 1865 that a number of journalists wrote personal studies or profiles. These articles and other sources, dating from the mid-1860s, probably mixed a small amount of fact with a large quantity of fiction, but at least allow some attempt to be made to reconstruct elements of his earlier life.

According to numerous virtually identical newspaper reports (in March and April 1866), GDR had studied in the Wesleyan College, Sheffield (no dates are given) and worked as a clerk in a merchant's office in Birmingham in 1849. "Pecuniary embarrassments" are said to have caused him to "leave town" and enlist in the 17th Lancers (December 1849).

He is widely reported to have been in the Charge of the Light Brigade, where he was injured in the leg, and fought in the India Mutiny. He was known for his "superabundance of high spirits" but "there was nothing cruel in his disposition". (In fact he did fight in India and in the Crimea, but was in hospital at Scutari at the time of the Charge.)

He is said to have returned to Birmingham after discharge (1863) and then moved back to Jamaica, where he found work in the police.

Many (but not all) articles of similar pedigree finish abruptly with the bald asertion: "He has some coloured blood in his veins".

His physical appearance and his actual, assumed or pretended earlier military career (for example as a "hero of Balaclava", a "holder of the Victoria Cross", as [someone who had been educated/harmed by the Indian Mutiny] will be discussed in more detail later.

GDR in the local press, April — May 1866

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PROVOST-MARSHAL RAMSAY.

The Birmingham correspondent of the Morning Herald states that Mr. Gordon D. Ramsay, the provost-marshal, against whom charges of murder are pending in Jamaica, was employed as a clerk in a merchant's office in Birmingham in the year 1849. Pecuniary embarrassments compelled him to leave the town, and he enlisted in the 17th Lancers, with which regiment he served in the Crimea.

He was in the Balaklava charge, and was wounded in the leg. He went with his regiment to India, and served in the Indian mutiny.

He afterwards got his discharge, and returned to Birmingham, where he remained for a short time, and then went to Jamaica, where his relations resided. He there got into the police force.

In Birmingham he was remarkable for his superabundance of animal spirits, but those who knew him say there was nothing cruel in his disposition. Lake, the newspaper reporter, was in the same office with Ramsay in Birmingham. He is the son of a Jamaica merchant — hence his leaving England for that country. He has some coloured blood in his veins.

[Source: Worcestershire Chronicle, 4 April 1866.]

This article was reprinted, with small variations, many times in local press. It would be good to check the original source, the Morning Herald. However, this was not available in the British Newspaper Archive in January 2017 (but keep checking).

Here is a slightly earlier version, which adds a number of pieces of information:

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BIRMINGHAM MEN IN THE JAMAICA TROUBLES.

It will be new to most of our readers to learn that Provost-Marshal Ramsay, against whom charge of murder is pending in Jamaica, and Lake, the newspaper reporter, who — under duress, as he states — at first justified the acts of repression, but afterwards turned Queen's evidence against the authorities, are both in some sense Birmingham men, having lived in this town for some time in their younger days. Ramsay was employed as clerk in merchant's office, in Birmingham, in 1849. He was driven — by pecuniary embarrassments, we believe — to leave the town, and he enlisted in the 17th Lancers, with which regiment he served the Crimea. He was in the Balaklava charge, and was wounded in the leg. He afterwards accompanied his regiment to India, and served during the mutiny. He got his discharge, and returned to Birmingham, but remained only short time here.

Leaving this town he went to Jamaica, where his relatives resided. He there got into the police force, and in time was employed as Provost-Marshal. In Birmingham he was remarkable for a superabundance of animal spirits, but those who knew him declare that there was no evidence of cruelty or heartlessness in his disposition; and it will be remembered that although charges of murder are made against him, he is said to have acted with great kindness and leniency to some of the prisoners at least. Lake, the newspaper reporter, was in the same office with Ramsay in Birmingham. He was the son of a Jamaica merchant — hence his leaving England for that country. He was for some time in the Wesleyan College at Sheffield. We are informed that he has some coloured blood in his veins.

[Source: Aris's Birmingham Gazette, Saturday 24 March 1866.]

Was GDR "mixed race"?

Most, though not all, articles in the British press March — April 1866 conclude abruptly with the line "he [GDR] has some coloured blood in his veins". Was this true? There is nothing obvious to suggest this in the genealogy provided by Vere Langford Oliver in his History of Antigua (date), but given how long GDR's ancestors had lived in the West Indies, it beggars belief that he did not.

For more on this, see for example J.A. Rogers, Sex and Race: A History of White, Negro and Indian Miscegenation in the Two Americas, volume 2, pp. 122 — 144. It is dated in style and analysis (it was first published in 1942) but contains much material of great interest. (I have excerpted the relevant chapters as "Rogers-Sex-and-Race-vol2-122-144.pdf")

But why was GDR's "coloured blood" mentioned at all? Was it to "explain" the atrocities he had committed?

There is an interesting study of this association in Gothic Images of Race in Nineteenth-Century Britain (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996). See the chapter on "The Half-Breed as Gothic Unnatural", which focuses on one of GDR's victim's, George William Gordon, himself "mixed-race" (pp.211-16). See also Wikipedia: George William Gordon for information and images.

Did GDR study in Sheffield?

Some variants of this article, including the Birmingham Gazette quoted above, claimed that GDR had attended the Wesleyan College, Sheffield.

Wesley College, Sheffield, which opened in 1838. Some newspapers mentioned that GDR once attended this school, but are vague about exactly when.

"This Victorian print shows Wesley College, Sheffield, in the 1800s in a suitably studious and sylvan setting. Boys and masters recreate in the grounds and a carriage arrives at the foot of the headmaster's steps." (Ian D Rotherham, Lost Sheffield in Colour, Stroud: Amberley Publishing, 2009.) Since 1905 the building has been King Edward VII School.

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For further information about the Wesleyan College:

• Wikipedia: Wesley College, Sheffield.
• Other refs?

It seems perfectly possible that GDR studied at Wesleyan College, but when exactly was he there? He might have been to school in England and returned prior to the registration of his baptism in Jamaica in August 1848 (assuming of course that he was present at that registration)? But a journey of that length and cost can hardly have been undertaken very often. (Or was it?)

It seems more likely that he left Jamaica after August 1848 and studied for only a brief period before taking up a position "as a clerk in a merchant's office in Birmingham in the year 1849". (There may be records of scholars in the college in the 1840s, but I have not found any references.)

Incidentally, it would not have been at all unusual for Jamaican children — whether white or "mulatto" — to study in England. As Rogers writes:

So many of the mulatto offspring went to England to study that the English people came to regard all West Indians as colored, says Long [History of Jamaica, 1774, vol.2, p.274]. For as these children are often sent to the most expensive schools where the history of their birth and parentage is entirely known they pass under the general name of West Indians; and the bronze of their complexion is ignorantly ascribed to the fervor of the sun of the tropics.

Regarding these mulatto offspring, he adds "The son is sent to Westminster or Eton; while the daughter is sent to Chelsea or some famed seminary..."

(And of course we should recall Thackeray's fabulously wealthy "Black Princess" Miss Rhoda Swartz, in Vanity Fair.) [Add more info about Jamaica heiresses?]

Had GDR worked with "Lake, the newspaper reporter" in Birmingham, and did this influence Lake's articles and testimony?

The Birmingham Gazette merely asserts they were both "in a sense Birmingham Men", but some papers elaborated slightly. The Worcestershire Chronicle, 4 April 1866, for example, claimed they had worked together (in the same "merchant's office"), and added that "Lake, the newspaper reporter, ... — under duress, as he states — at first justified the acts of repression, but afterwards turned Queen's evidence against the authorities".

[Look into this? Lake's changing testimony is mentioned in the Royal Commission that reported in 1867.]

Enlistment

Enlisted at Costessey [Norwich] on the 28th of December 1849.

Age: 24.

Height: 5' 8".

Trade: None shown.

[PB: Assuming he was born 1831, GDR would have been about 18 years of age on enlistment, not 24. Why the 17th Lancers? It's a bit of a stretch to make this connection but the 17th had been in Jamaica 1795 — 97, where they had played a significant part in the Second Maroon War. It is possible stories told about them seized his imagination, or is it simply a coincidence?

The regimental history gives more detail: Hon. J.W. Fortescue, A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own), (London: Macmillan, 1895). (There is a pdf copy in the archive as "Fortescue_History of the 17th Lancers_ahistorythlance00fortgoog.pdf".

I have since learned that his father, William Ramsay, had been in the 15th Light Dragoons. It would be good to know more about his time in the 15th. Did he fight in the Napoleonic Wars?

The "Sketch of Ramsay" published in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph (10 April 1866) is interesting:

He [GDR] is of an honourable family, though he entered the army as a private soldier; a near relative if his being, at the time, I think, a field officer. He rode in the charge of the six hundred at Balaklava. Throughout the Crimean war, and in the thickest of fights consequent on the Indian mutiny, he behaved with conspicuous fearlessness, indeed, there is, some story — whether true or not I cannot say — that he entered the army with a distinct and romantic motive of vindicating the family reputation for courage.

His prodigious strength, no doubt assisted the attainment of his object, a high character as soldier in the field; and, satisfied with having attained it, he refused a commission which was offered him, left the army, and came to Jamaica, where his father had held the office of Custos of St. Andrew's [PB: St Catherine's].

What are we to make of the story that GDR: "entered the army with a distinct and romantic motive of vindicating the family reputation for courage"?

"Vindicating"? Was he intending to clear his family's name of blame — for example, had an ancestor been dubbed a coward? Or did it simply mean something like "justify" or "to live up to" his ancestor's reputation?

Who was this "near relative" who had been a field officer in 1849? [It might be possible to find him by looking for e.g. Ramsays, Harmans etc.]

Service

During the period Jan — March 1851, 1029 Gordon D. Ramsay was with the regiment at Newbridge, Ireland (Worldwide Army Index transcription of WO12/1335).

He was tried by a Regimental Court-martial on the 3rd of June 1854 for "insolence to a superior officer" and sentenced to 50 lashes, but this sentence was remitted.

[PB: The regiment was in Varna between June and early September 1854.Incidentally, even if he had avoided lashes at this time, GDR would have had plenty of experience of flogging when he came to ordering it to be carried out on so many in Jamaica in 1865.]

At Scutari, 11th of October 1854 — 3rd of February 1855. [This shows he was not in the Balaclava Charge.]

From Private to Corporal: 1st of January 1855. [i.e. at Scutari?]

Clerk to the A.A. General, Cavalry Division, attached to the 6th Dragoons, on 12th of November 1855. [This demonstrates the high level of literacy he must have enjoyed, consonant with his social background.]

Prisoner from the 2nd of January and reduced to Private, by a Regimental Court-martial on the 7th of January 1856. [What had he done?]

Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S."Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.

In his manuscript account of the Indian Mutiny, 1117 James Wightman, 17th Lancers, tells of the following incident during [the pursuit of] Tantia Topee:

"It was at this time that Major White had a narrow escape — he had singled out a rebel officer and, by some mishap, instead of his sword passing through the body of the rebel, the point went under his arm. Before the rebel had time to cut at the Major, Private Ramsey ran his lance through him, tumbling him out of the saddle, a corpse...

Major White and myself were at the bottom of a nullah [riverbed, ravine], when Ramsey again made himself conspicuous on his Arab, D.31, by flying over our heads.

'Whoever was that?' said Major White, and when told it was Ramsey he remarked that 'he had been in many a hunting field and never saw such a leap.'"

[PB: Explain? Draw attention to similarities between what happened in India and later in Jamaica — popular protest by the subject population followed by devastating punitive action by the British army, including of course Ramsay. Find sources that discuss how the Indian Mutiny transformed British attitudes to black people for the worse. This is also the period of the rise of "scientific" racism.]

From Private to Corporal: 26th of February 1858.

Corporal to Sergeant: 10th of April 1858.

The musters for July-September of 1858 show him as being "On Detachment to Sholapoore" during the whole of this period.

In action against the rebels at Zeerapore on the 29th of December 1858 and at Baroda on the 1st of January 1859.

Reduced to Private by a Regimental Court-martial on the 2nd of June 1859.

On passage from India on the 26th of January 1863, and on the Depot roll from the 1st of May 1863.

Discharge & pension

Discharged, "time expired", from Canterbury on the 6th of May 1863.

Served 12 years 245 days.

Conduct: "Latterly good". Not in possession of any Good Conduct badges.

Medals

Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma and Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.

Mutiny medal without clasp.

Commemorations

A "W.G. Ramsey" [PB: sp?] is shown in the 1877 list of members of the Balaclava Society, but in a copy of this formerly belonging to 1353 William Pearson (see the "Memoirs" file) there is the comment "Not known" in the latter's handwriting by the side of his name.

[PB: Clearly not GDR, but I wonder who this was, and why he presented himself as a Charger?]

Likenesses

The Princeton Album

"Provost Marshal Ramsay
Tried for Murder, and acquitted."

[Source: see below]

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GDR is in the middle row, extreme left. Notice the oddly ambiguous title: "Victims of the Jamaica rebellion of 1865". [[What exactly is this scrapbook? Who put it together and why etc? ]

[Source: The entire album is now available online in high resolution at http://pudl.princeton.edu/objects/736664580 / http://pudl.princeton.edu/objects/736664580#page/1/mode/2up. Medium resolution images are most accessible at http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/Jamaica/jamaicajpg/contents.htm.]

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Jamaica prints attributed to Adolphe Duperly (Jamaica photographs taken before the Morant Bay Rebellion may have been taken by Duperly, or by his studio, A. Duperly and Sons; Jamaica photographs taken after the Rebellion may have been taken by Duperly Brothers, if dated to 1865).

Henry Bleby, Reign of Terror, book cover illustration

Henry Bleby, Reign of Terror, (London, 1868.

Ramsay is top right, next to George William Gordon (centre) and Governor Eyre (left).

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Engraving probably based on the CDV.

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National Library of Jamaica portrait

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PB: Jan 2017: There is a photograph online described as a "half portrait of George P Ramsay" that is in fact GDR. Some distortion was introduced in the online display of the image, widening his face and body. However the original s correctly proportioned (as here)

Go to http://198.170.76.2/nljdigital/nljdigital.htm and enter "Ramsay". But be warned — do not download the page as it looks as though there might be a virus or similar attached.

Life after service

GDR features in numerous accounts of the Morant Bay [Riot? Rebellion? Insurrection? Or focus on the carnage wrought by the British? What phrases have been used to describe a) the initial events b) the British and Maroon reaction? ].

Summarise Morant Bay and GDR's role.

Gordon Duberry Ramsay and the Morant Bay Massacre

For background to the Morant Bay "uprising" see also Jamaican Maroons, and The Baptist War, also called the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt of 1831-32.]

Newspaper accounts of GDR's involvement in the Morant Bay events, chargeofthelightbrigade.com/allmen/allmenR/allmenR_17L/ramsey_g_1029_17L/ramsay_g_1029_17L_newspaper_accounts.html.

A number of books were published about the events in the C19. See the numerous damning references to GDR's actions in:

Henry Bleby, Reign of Terror, 1868.

Edward Bean Underhill, The Tragedy of Morant Bay, (1895).

Harry Hamilton Johnston, The Negro in the New World, (London: 1910), 5 references to GDR.

Claims about GDR's military career

GDR's actual, assumed or pretended military career prior to Morant Bay was widely mentioned at the time, and subsequently. [Explain how and why.] It seems also to have had an important role in getting him elevated to the position of "Provost Marshal" in [the first place / in securing Eyre's backing / presumably it was Eyre who recruited him / Underhill calls him Eyre's "satellite"?].

For example, in an essay written for [?] the Open University in 2011, Robert Fraser, professor of English at the Open University, states that GDR had earned a Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade. This article is readily available online as part of the indispensable Victorian Web.

[I have tried to trace this ....]

The few regular troops on the island were under the overall command of General L. Smythe O'Connor; Eyre as governor, however, was responsible for specific troop movements. Eyre placed 100 men from the 2nd Battalion, 6th Regiment and the 1st West India Regiment under the command of Captain Lewis Hall, responsible for scouting and subduing the area immediately inland from Morant Bay (n.17).

He [Eyre or Hall?] rapidly appointed a Police-Inspector called Ramsay, who had earned the Victoria Cross during the Crimean War by taking part in the Charge of the Light Brigade, to the post of Provost Martial, responsible for the administration of the emergency provisions in Morant Bay itself, where courts martial were to be convened to try suspects (n.18).

[Source: Robert Fraser (2011). "Race and religion in the Victorian age: Charles Kingsley, Governor Eyre and the Morant Bay Rising", The Victorian Web, http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/kingsley/rfraser2.html and oro.open.ac.uk/28504/2/DDFE66B3.pdf (accessed 29.1.2017).]

[Fraser makes the point that Eyre, who had no military experience, was nevertheless Captain General and Supreme Commander-in-Chief in Jamaica.]

n.18 The chain of command at the time of the rising had been complicated by the political evolution of the island in recent years. Technically all orders had to be issued, or at least confirmed, by General O'Connor, who held the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the British Troops in the West Indies. Confusingly, however, Eyre, who had no military experience, was Captain General and Supreme Commander-in-Chief in Jamaica, in which capacity he acted, with the support of the council, to put down the rising in the draconian manner he saw fit. Moreover, because of reforms at the war office, for which the Secretary of State Cardwell had been responsible, the large-scale British military force had recently been withdrawn, leaving a handful of officers and an impromptu militia.

The lack of a substantial regular armed force had been a constant bone of contention between Eyre and the Colonial Office. Eyre cited this deficiency as a reason for his severity during the rising, continuing to do so for some time afterwards (see note 18 below). Despite Eyre's protestations, it is doubtful whether the insurgents made a distinction between the militia and regular troops.

Gad Heuman, foremost historian of the Rebellion, states that GDR was in the Charge but does not mention not the alleged VC or service in India:

"[T]he Provost-Marshal at Morant Bay, Gordon Ramsay ... was a veteran of the Crimean War and had participated in the Charge of the Light Brigade" [Killing Time, 1994, p.126].

Vaguer in John Fabian Witt, "Anglo-American Empire and the Crisis of the Legal Frame (Will the Real British Empire Please Stand Up?)", Harvard Law Review, vol. 120, pp.754-797 (2007), a review of Kostal, A Jurisprudence of Power (2005):

"A provost-marshal named Duberry Ramsay was probably the most vicious. Ramsay was named the head of a prison camp during the martial law period, and in this capacity he sadistically whipped scores of prisoners and executed dozens summarily on the barest and flimsiest of evidence. [n. See KOSTAL, supra note 23, at 93-94] Ramsay made possible the successful prosecution of Gordon by inducing prisoners in his camp to testify against Gordon in the military commission at which Gordon was tried." [n. Id. at 94-95 &n,i76.] (p.778).

Sarah Winter, in a useful summary of events (chiefly based on Heuman), does not refer to his military career:

"Provost Marshal Gordon Ramsay — a former inspector of police whom Eyre had put in charge of floggings, executions, and imprisonments during the period of martial [?]..." (Heuman, 137-38, 174).

However, James Michener, in his popular novel Caribbean (198?), makes GDR not only Charge but puts him "in the lead" and confers a VC on him for having done so:

"...a certified military hero, Gordon Dewberry Ramsay, who had galloped in the lead during the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava and won England's highest honor for doing so, the Victoria Cross."

[Tracing this back in time...]

[Perhaps surprisingly?] [Howard?] Bleby, Reign of Terror (date?), who wrote the most detailed account of Ramsay's innumerable atrocities, gives no details about his military career, simply commenting dismissively that Ramsay "is understood to have been formerly connected with the army in some subordinate capacity":

"In those evil days, Provost-Marshal Ramsay distinguished himself by acts of brutality and ruffianism which have seldom been surpassed. He was understood to have been formerly connected with the army in some subordinate capacity; after which he became associated with the police establishment in Jamaica. For some reason unexplained, this individual was selected to fill the office of Provost-Marshal during the reign of terror; and the villainies related concerning him would appear to be fabulous and incredible, if so many of them had not been proved on oath, by unexceptionable testimony, before the Royal Commissioners." (p.)

[? "for some reason unexplained" — had Eyre known his family when he was Governor [?] of Antigua [in ?] — what does Eyre say/imply about GDR's special qualifications?]

[military connection...]

Underhill, in his Tragedy of Morant Bay (1895, p.197):

PARAPHRASE: True to their evil history, the Jamaica Grand Jury, in the teeth of the clear statements and recommendation of the Judge, refused to bring in a true bill, or to submit the clearly unlawful and criminal acts of Provost Marshal Ramsay to a petty jury. The lucid, temperate, constitutional, and impartial charge of the Judge availed nothing, and this case of awful crime has passed into history unpunished and unavenged.

After fifteen minutes' consultation, the prisoner [GDR] was discharged from custody, and walked out of Court with the Victoria Cross upon his breast, won in the mad cavalry charge up the heights of Balaclava, a disgrace to the profession to which he belonged.

[Source: Underhill, in his Tragedy of Morant Bay (1895, p.197). See here.]

[PB: Was he literally wearing the VC? Is there any corroboration? A footnote references the Freeman of November 16th, 1866, pp. 472, 575. I have not found this journal — was it a Baptist Missionary Journal?]

According to many British newspapers in April 1866:

"Gordon D. Ramsay, the provost-marshal, against whom charges of murder are pending in Jamaica ... enlisted in the 17th Lancers, with which regiment he served in the Crimea.

He was in the Balaklava charge, and was wounded in the leg. He went with his regiment to India, and served in the Indian mutiny. [Worcestershire Chronicle, 4 April 1866. Full transcription here.]

Most frustratingly, the Parliamentary Papers (Royal Commission? (Further Correspondence Relative to the Affairs of Jamaica, 28 May 1867 ...) that reported on the most deeply research the events alludes to something significant in GDR's background, but what? [The ? goes on to argue that / 6th November 1866. (Signed) J. P. Grant.]

[O]n the 11th of October 1865, or little more than a year ago, a popular outbreak of a very formidable character occurred in this parish. On the 13th, under a statute which was passed in the year 1845, martial law was proclaimed; the effect of which was to place the entire disturbed district under the military power...

To carry out this law a distinguished officer of the royal army was selected [Colonel Nelson]; who... appointed Mr. Ramsay, then filling the post of inspector of police for the precinct of St. Catherine, Provost Marshal...Colonel Nelson... had perfect authority to make this appointment there can be little doubt. I may remark, in passing, that for the duties to which he was so nominated, Mr. Ramsay's qualifications were of a rare, almost unique kind.

Frustratingly, Grant continues: "but with that consideration we have nothing to do at present." What might these "rare, almost unique" qualifications have been? But whatever they were, Grant [disparages] GDR's [achievements] in the role:

the proper performance of the functions of a district inspector of police requires a humane as well as a firm character, a cool head in times of trial, a calm temper under irritating circumstances, and a general steadiness of judgment, all lamentably wanting in Mr. Ramsay ... I am of opinion that Mr. Ramsay should be removed from the office which he holds under the Governor's commission.

What was GDR accused of doing?

• 1. Whipping innumerable people using an especially [contrived] vicious cat-o-nine-tails [in which piano wire was [inter] with the more usual knotted rope
• 1. The illegal execution of ? Marshall, after he had ? during his scourging
• 2. Re Gordon
• 3. Other...
• 3. Other...

Numerous people testified under oath to the Royal Commissioners that they had themselves suffered, or had seen others suffer, [scourging] at the hands of Ramdsay ... without justification...Ramsay's whim ... after no due legal process...

[Where had these people come from? How found or captured?]

One after another, a considerable number of these unfortunate people were thrown upon the ground, and held down by several persons, while they were lacerated with the cat; Ramsay himself, as proved by the evidence of Kirkland before the Commissioners, flogging fifteen of them with his own hand. It was at this place that women, some of them in a state of pregnancy, were subjected to the lash by these monsters.

[Bleby, p.?]

[The special construction of the whip]

Bleby and others drew particular attention to the [special construction] of the whip Ramsay used:

[B]ecause the ordinary instruments of cruelty inflicted torture insufficient to gratify their sanguinary propensities, though made of strong knotted cord, and capable of causing terrible punishment, strings of twisted piano wire were added, to render the sufferings of the victims more excruciating and terrible.

When Ramsay gave his orders for the flogging of the prisoners, Bruce [Ramsay's deputy] made a cat according to the regimental style, with nine tails, and three knots on each tail; but that was not considered sufficiently effective, and he was ordered to make a cat of wire. They were made of cord and wire, mixed according to the taste of those who made them. The tails were not limited to nine, but amounted to sixteen or seventeen strands with wire around them, and the wire was often knotted so as to cut the skin.

Som attempt appears to have been made to hide the evidence of these whips, but numerous witnesses swore on oath before the Royal Commissioners about their construction, and besides:

...some remnants of these instruments of torture, which had been overlooked when Colonel Fyfe [who he?] got the others destroyed out of the way, were produced before the Commissioners.

"Were the punishments very severe?" was a question asked of Bruce. His answer was, "O, very! I have seen amongst soldiers three hundred lashes in the army but I never saw anything like this." (p.?).

GDR and ?George Marshall

It is stated that after the flogging, or more correctly after the 47th lash, 50 being the sentence or order, Marshall smarting from the pain, turned towards Ramsay, and ground his teeth.

Ramsay, whether, as is urged in his defence, considering the conduct to savour of mutiny, and requiring therefore an exceptional display of vigour at his hands, the rather that the party of order was numerically weak, and that of disaffection or suspected of disaffection numerically strong; or, as is suggested on the behalf of the Crown, vindictively, cruelly, and in the mere wantonness of power, thereupon did the act for which he is now sought to be made responsible.

He ordered Marshall to be hanged, who was hanged accordingly.

The regular course would have been to have submitted to the award of a court martial. Ramsay as Provost Marshal had no judicial, but only ministerial authority.

But the charge is of so grave a nature that it will be expedient to give the statements of the witnesses in their own words.

The witness, James Beckett, says, "From, the anguish of the flogging Marshall said, "O Lord!" Mr. Ramsay said, 'Sedition! take him down, and hang him.' "

The deponent Augustus Lake states, "Marshall did not receive the whole of his sentence. At the receipt of the 47th or 48th lash — for I counted them — I observed a large quantity of blood flowing from his back. He immediately turned round and ground his teeth. He said nothing, but groaned. I was standing within a yard or two of the end of the cat, just out of reach of the round of the swing, and I must have heard whatever was said by Marshall. The Provost Marshal said, 'Take that man down and hang him.' Those are the substance of the words as near as I can remember."

And lastly the deponent Gentle: "I saw Marshall get 47 lashes. At the 47th Ramsay ordered him to be taken down. He said that Marshall ground his teeth. I did not see Marshal do anything. Mr. Ramsay said, "Take him and hang him." I could hear everything that he said.

Such, gentlemen of the Grand Jury, are the statements of the witnesses. And the question therefore is, is this murder ? I need scarcely observe to gentlemen serving in your present capacity that the fact of the immediate actors in the homicide being other than Mr. Ramsay himself makes no difference in the case if he gave the fatal order.

Sources

GDR and Gordon

[? Captures Gordon and others, and claims a bounty for doing so.]

Sources

Sources

Other

Sources

Other

Sources

GDR in the USA

It is not clear when exactly GDR left Jamaica — the last reference I have found to him there is the Jamaican Morning Journal, date ?.

But he can be found in the 1870 Census in New York. Was he living there, or on his way back to England?