Medals awarded
- The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
- 1914-15 Star
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal 1914-19
- Defence Medal 1939-45
- British War Medal 1939-45
- King George V Silver Jubilee Medal 1935
- King George VI Coronation Medal 1937
Medals are shown left to right, as per the bullet point list above.
Born in Knowle, Warwickshire in 1886, Bernard Vivien ‘Rammer’ Ramsden joined the Yorkshire Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1905.
During the First World War, he initially served with the West African Field Force until April 1915. He then served in France from July, 1915 taking part in operations on the Somme, including Montauban, Trones Wood and Guillemont. He was also in the fighting at Flers, 12 October 1916. Ramsden next served on the Staff as Brigade-Major from May 1916 to February 1917, and from December 1917 to March 1918, including the fighting south of Arras.
During the inter-war years, he was with the 2nd Battalion in Ireland and was also present in Palestine during the riots in 1929, and with the Shanghai Defence Force in 1930. He retired on 27 March, 1938 but was recalled from the reserve in 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War.
As Commanding Officer during the Second World War, Rammer was responsible for the successful establishment of the Infantry Training Centre (ITC) and “probably the best Home Guard in the country”, with more than 10,000 men recruited in the North Riding. Lieutenant Colnel Ramsden was appointed OBE for this work with the ITC.
As the regimental Gazette recalled, on the announcement of his death in 1971, ‘The Regiment will greatly mourn the passing of this great, warm-hearted and intensely loyal Green Howard, who has struck his tent off for ever’.