Lady Hope Anita Jane Ramsay (née MacGregor 1877-3 April 1962) was an aristocrat, charity fundraiser and land-owner

Early life and marriage

Hope Anita Jane Macgregor was born in 1877 to Euphemia Georgina Lindsay and her husband Colonel Alexander Donald MacGregor. Raised both in Edinburgh and at her parents’ home in Devon, Hope married James Douglas Ramsay (known to all by his middle name) in London in 1908. Prior to the First World War the couple lived first in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and then in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, where her husband managed a gold mine. After his war service with the Scottish Horse was concluded, they lived on the royal Balmoral Estate where her husband was the King’s Commissioner. Active members of the county set in Royal Deeside, Lady Ramsay was a vice president of the Deeside Field Club. In 1926, on the death of her father-in-law Sir James Henry Ramsay, her husband inherited the

Bamff Bamff House is the home of the Ramsays of Bamff, and is located within a estate in Perthshire, Scotland. Bamff House began as a fortified tower in the late 16th Century and was added to and altered in almost every century since then. Bamff has ...

Baronetcy, becoming the 11th Baron. Sir Douglas and Lady Hope and their sons Neis Alexander and David James moved into Bamff House shortly thereafter.

Career

Over the coming decades the couple were firm fixtures in local and national social and political circles. Enjoying a familial relationship with the Royal Family, they were regular guests of the royal family at both

Holyrood Palace The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinbu ...

and Balmoral and Lady Ramsay presented several young ladies to the new King and Queen on their first official visit to Edinburgh in 1937. Bamff House was a popular resort for those who enjoyed shooting animals, the numbers of grouse being killed there each season sometimes receiving further national attention in print. The Ramsays were both active in the Scottish Unionist Party, Sir Douglas’s sister was

Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, DBE (''née'' Ramsay; 6 November 1874 – 21 October 1960), known as the Marchioness of Tullibardine from 1899 to 1917, was a British noblewoman and Scottish Unionist Party politician who ...

, the Unionist MP for Kinross and West Perthshire from 1923 to 1938, and the couple were occasionally photographed in attendance at party meetings and Lady Ramsay was a speaker at a gathering of “women unionists” in Alyth in 1926. Contemporary local and national newspapers regularly mention Lady Ramsay’s attendance at social gatherings across the country and her occasional duties opening charitable fetes and other activities on behalf of churches, the Scottish Women’s Institutes and other charitable organisations. At a speech in 1930, while opening an

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

fete in the Palais de Danse in aid of the Edinburgh Women’s Citizens’ Association, Lady Ramsay claimed that Rob Roy MacGregor was one of her ancestors. She went on to explain to attendees that she believed the role of women had changed significantly during her lifetime and with it their responsibilities as “the fate of the nation” now hung upon their votes. In 1932 she is mentioned as one of the leading members of the Scottish Fine Arts and Print Club who formed a delegation to visit the Edinburgh City Chambers to meet the Lord Provost and discuss the city’s art collection. In 1935, she joined the ruling council of the influential Edinburgh conservation body the Cockburn Association. In 1938 she was charged with dangerous driving. In 1940, Lady Ramsay wrote a provocative letter from the couple’s Edinburgh home in Ann Street to the Scotsman, debating whether the German people were innately good or bad based in part upon her childhood experiences of being raised by a strict Prussian governess. Her younger son David was married in 1939 and her elder son Neis was married in 1940. David was killed in a military action at Villons-les-Buissons shortly after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

for which he was awarded a posthumous

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

for gallantry. Sir J. Douglas Ramsay died after a long illness on the 14 March 1959 and Lady Ramsay died of heart failure at home in Bamff House on 3 April 1962.National Records of Scotland, Statutory Registers Deaths: 685/2 247

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsay, Hope Anita Jane 1877 births 1962 deaths Perth and Kinross