Mac Ramsay
Full name | Kenelm Mackenzie Ramsay | ||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 27 August 1914 | ||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Quirindi, NSW, Australia | ||||||||||||||||
Date of death | 1 July 1942 | (aged 27)||||||||||||||||
Place of death | at sea, Philippines | ||||||||||||||||
School | Tamworth High School | ||||||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | Salesman | ||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
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Kenelm Mackenzie "Mac" Ramsay (27 August 1914 — 1 July 1942) was an Australian rugby union international.
Ramsay was born in Quirindi and educated at Tamworth High School.[1]
Rugby career
[edit]A versatile forward, Ramsay debuted for Drummoyne in 1935 and made the New South Wales state side in his first season in the top grade, then moved on to Randwick the following year, where he played in two premierships.[1]
Ramsay gained a total of four caps for the Wallabies from 1936 to 1938 and was on the 1939–40 tour of Britain and Ireland which was abandoned due to the war, two days after the team arrived in England.[1][2]
World War II
[edit]Ramsay, enlisting in 1940, served as a Corporal in the 1st Independent Company and was posted to New Ireland. The island was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and soldiers in Ramsay's unit were ordered to retreat. He made it to a ship but was captured by a Japanese destroyer. After being interned at Rabaul, Ramsay was put on the Montevideo Maru which was transporting Australian prisoners of war to Hainan. It was torpedoed en route by the USS Sturgeon, unaware that prisoners were on board. Over 1000 people, including Ramsay, were killed in the sinking of the ship.[3][4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Kenelm Mackenzie "Mac" Ramsay". classicwallabies.com.au.
- ^ "Who's Who In The "Wallabies"". Daily News. 20 June 1939. p. 8 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Remembering Wallaby "Mac" Ramsay - WW2 Hell Ship victim". The Roar. 29 June 2017.
- ^ "The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX25468) Corporal Kenelm Mackenzie Ramsay, No.1 Independent Company, Second AIF, Second World War". Australian War Memorial. 11 August 2020.