Robert Ramsay (Victorian politician)

An 1888 illustration of Ramsay

Robert Ramsay (16 February 1842 – 23 May 1882),[1] was an Australian statesman and Postmaster-General of Victoria on two occasions in the 1870s.

Biography

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.[2] He married in 1868 Isabella Catherine Urquhart, second daughter of Roderick Urquhart, of Yangery Park.[3]

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 from 1872 to 1874. He was subsequently Postmaster-General of Victoria (July 1874 to August 1875) in the administration of George Kerferd; he held the same office in conjunction with the ministry of education (October 1875 to May 1877) 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.[2]

He died on 23 May 1882 at his home in East Melbourne.

References

  1. ^ "Ramsay, Robert". Re-Member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  2. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ramsay, Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 879.
  3. ^ Mennell, Philip (1892). "Ramsay, Hon. Robert" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.