Robert Ramsay (politician)

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

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. He married in 1868 Isabella Catherine Urquhart, second daughter of Roderick Urquhart, of Yangery Park.^[2] 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 in 1872-1874. 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. He died on 23 May 1882 in Melbourne.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.