Admiral Bertram Ramsay: The Man Behind Dunkirk

by Martha Hutchens

Photo: Lt. C. J. Ware, Royal Navy official photographer.
Imperial War Museums collection
(public domain via Wikimedia Commons).

What kind of man rescues 338,000 men—and that isn’t the highlight of his career? His name was Bertram Ramsay.

Ramsay was born in 1883 to a military family. His father, William Ramsay, served in India, where he met a young lieutenant named Winston Spencer Churchill. The senior Ramsay must have made a good impression, because later on Churchill helped Ramsay’s second son enter Sandhurst.

Bertram, who was a third son, was sent off to Britannia, a place where young men began training for the Royal Navy. And by young, I mean 13 years old.

Bertram entered training 47th out of 61 candidates. He left at nearly the same level. He wrote to his mother saying that he did not believe he would become a midshipman. In fact, he almost didn’t make it into the Navy at all. His first medical examination detected a problem with his heart. For some reason, the test was run again, and he was cleared for duty.

Bertram became a midshipman at age 16. Five years later, he’s a lieutenant, known for having high standards and not much tact. At one point, he is the lieutenant on the Albemarle, which draws up alongside HMS Queen, captained by David Beatty, who later becomes Lord Beatty. Ramsay saw something that he considered poorly done and sent the message saying, “Queen’s signalmen are a disgrace to the fleet.” Beatty is furious and demands an explanation from the admiral in charge. The admiral knows nothing about the entire situation, but promises to “look into it and deal with it.” 

Cliffs of Dover, image by 4KClips, Deposit Photos

In 1915, Ramsay is given his first ship, a small craft in the English Channel. For most of World War I, he patrols the strait that separates Dover from Dunkirk. At the time, Germany occupied Belgium, so this body of water saw a lot of action. Nearby Ostend and Zeebrugge served as major German U-boat bases.

Ramsay’s career was not always smooth. On two occasions, he bumps into another ship. His commander-in-chief, Admiral Keyes, isn’t pleased, but doesn’t seem to take any action. Later, Ramsay is put in command of several destroyers. One of them sights a submarine, and Ramsay sends all of the destroyers after it. They drop depth charges and only later learn that it is a British sub, which was fortunately not harmed. Ramsay was cleared of responsibility at a court of inquiry. His commander-in-chief, however, brought him in and demanded that he explain himself. Ramsay pointed out that if the admiral’s staff had sent information about a British sub in the area, they would not have dropped the depth charges. While probably true, this once again showed an astonishing lack of tact.

After the war, Ramsay stayed in the Royal Navy, serving in various posts. He married and had two children. In 1935, he was offered a position of Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of Home Fleet, Sir Roger Backhouse. This collaboration did not run smoothly. Backhouse did not like delegation, preferring to keep all of the decisions in his own hands. Ramsay believed in finding new talent and training it well, and then delegating to it. After a few months, Ramsay left this position. While it seemed to be an amicable resignation, rumors arose that he behaved badly. Though Backhouse spoke up for Ramsay, he was not offered another position until 1937. This was a position he did not feel he could accept.

Ramsay was put on the retired list on October 10, 1938. This is almost 40 years after he entered the Navy, and he was likely unhappy with how his career ended. Little did he know what was still ahead of him.

Shortly after this, Backhouse becomes the First Sea Lord, and he nominates Ramsay to be the flag officer at Dover if war should break out. After all, Ramsay had spent most of WWI patrolling the Dover Strait in a small, shallow-draft boat.

In August 1939, Ramsay is posted back to Dover to set up the command, just ahead of the start of the war. After decades in the Navy, Ramsay has many contacts in the military. Because of this, he hears a lot about events in France. He also knows the Dover Strait very well from his time patrolling it. He quietly began preparing for what he feared might be coming.

He tells the Admiralty to collect and organize as many shallow-draft boats as possible because he sees that Britain may one day have to take soldiers off the beaches of France. Though he has battleships and destroyers, they cannot get close enough to the shore. So when the order to evacuate came, he already had the planning in place.

Churchill and Ramsay review after action reports
image by William George Horton, public domain

On Sunday, May 26, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk began. The original estimate was that they could rescue about 45,000 men. Ramsay sent men across the Channel to be his eyes and ears. He needed to know where the troops were, what kind of ships would work, and where not to send ships at all. The work went on for six solid days. On Sunday, June 2, Ramsay’s men in France, with classic British understatement, sent the signal:

BEF evacuated.

Ramsay thought he was done, but there were still French soldiers there. When Ramsay pointed out that his men were exhausted after six days and nights, the First Sea Lord said they had to keep going.

On Monday, June 3, 1940, Ramsay addressed his men.

“We cannot leave our Allies in the lurch, and I must call on all officers and men…to let the world see that we never let down our Ally.”

They spent one more day rescuing as many of them as they could. The final tally was 338,000 men.

Much has been written about the evacuation of Dunkirk. In fact, there is a post on Heroes, Heroines and History by Cindy Stewart about the national call to prayer over this potential disaster. You can find it here.

At the beginning, I mentioned that Dunkirk wasn't the highlight of Ramsay's career. He was just getting started. I'll tell the rest of his story next month.

One final note. Dunkirk was not the largest sea evacuation in history. If you'd like to learn about the evacuation that eclipsed Dunkirk's record, click here.

Best-selling author Martha Hutchens is a history nerd who loves nothing more than finding a new place and time to explore. She won the 2019 Golden Heart for Romance with Religious and Spiritual Elements. A former analytical chemist and retired homeschool mom, Martha occasionally finds time for knitting when writing projects allow.

Martha’s debut novel, A Steadfast Heart, is now available. You can learn more about her books and historical research at Martha Hutchens.com.

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