RAMSOEN, H E,
Trooper, Protectorate Regiment , was awarded the Victoria Cross for services
in the South African War of 1899-1902 [London Gazette, 6 July, 1900]: "H E
Ramsden, Trooper, Protectorate Regiment. On the 26th December 1899,
during the fight at Game Tree, near Mafeking, after the order to retire was
given, Trooper H E Ramsden picked up his brother, Trooper A E Ramsden, who
had been shot through both legs and was lying about ten yards from the Boer
trenches, and carried him about 600 or 800 yards under a heavy fire (putting
him down from time to time to rest), till they met some men who helped to
carry him to a place of safety".
This was the second Victoria Cross awarded to a soldier for saving his own
brother's life; the first was awarded to Sir C J S Gough.
After the war he gained a commission in the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles.
He married Ada Tomlinson and had a son. During the Great War he served
with Hartigan's Horse in South West Africa where he was taken prisoner by
the Germans. He divorced and remarried Mary Levy in 1934.
Ramsden died at Wynberg
on 3 August 1948.
