Alexander Ramsay (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral the Hon. Sir Alexander Ramsay, (29 May1881-8 October 1972 was a British naval officer who was the husband of Princess Patricia of Connaught, the youngest child of the Duke of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria.

The Hon. Alexander Robert Maule Ramsay, C.G.V.O., K.C.B., D.S.O. was born in London, the third son of James William Ramsay, 13th Earl of Dalouise and his wife, Lady Ida Louisa Bennet. He entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in HMS Britannia in 1894 and later went to sea on the HMS Majestic, the flagship of Admiral Sir Walter Kerr in the Channel Sqaudron. In October 1911, he became a naval aide-de-camp to the Duke of Connaught, then Governor General of Canada. He returned to active naval duty in 1913 as the gunnery officer of the crusier Indefatigable in the Mediterranean. He took part in the first part of the bombardment of the Dardanelles forts in November 1914 and later at Gallipoli. He received the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) for his conduct there. Ramsay rose to the rank of commander in late 1914 and became flag commander of the Second Squadron in 1916. He was promoted to captain in 1919 and served as the naval attache in Paris for the next three years.

On 27 February 1919, the then-Captain Ramsay married Princess Patricia of Connaught at Westminster Abbey, in the presence of the entire British Royal Family. On the day of the wedding, Princess Patricia voluntarily relinqished the title of Princess of Great Britain and Ireland and the style "Royal Highness", and assumed by Royal Warrant the style "Lady Patricia Ramsay" with precedence before the marchionesses of England. Despite his wife's relinquishment of her royal title, the couple were considered members of the British Royal Family and attended major royal events for the next forty years. They had one son, Alexander Ramsay of Mar.

In 1928, Ramsay assumed command of the aircraft carrier HMS Furious in the Atlantic Fleet. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1933 and for the next five years commanded the aircraft carriers in the fleet. King George V made him a Companion of the Order of the Bath (C.B.) in the 1934 New Year's Honors. He was susbeqeuntly advanced to the rank of Knight Commander in that order. Ramsay served as commander-in-chief, East Indies Station from 1936 to 1938 and then became Fifth Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Air Services. Ramsay held this post until the outbreak of World War II. He was promoted to admiral and retired at his own request in 1942. King George VI knighted him on 18 February 1938 and invested him with the Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (G.C.V.O.) on 6 July of that year.

Admiral Ramsay died at Ribsden Holt, Windlesham, Surrey in 1972. He was buried at Frogmore Royal Burial Ground.