John Ramsay (surgeon)

Sir John Ramsay CBE FRACS (26 December 1872 – 6 February 1944) was an Australian surgeon, known for his association with the Launceston General Hospital. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, the fourth son of the businessman John Ramsay and his wife, Margaret Thomson, he was the brother of the manufacturer, William Ramsay and the artist, Hugh Ramsay. Ramsay and his family migrated to Melbourne in 1878. In Melbourne, Ramsay attended State School No. 2855 at Prahran and Wesley College. He graduated as a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (M.B.,B.S.) from the University of Melbourne with the Beaney Prize in pathology, in 1893.

After a year's residency at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (1894), Ramsay spent the next year abroad in Auckland as a resident (1895), before being appointed house surgeon at the Launceston General Hospital. In 1896, Ramsay and Dr. Francis John Drake participated in the first demonstration of X-rays by Frank Styant Browne at Launceston General Hospital. In 1898, he became the surgeon-superintendent of the hospital. Ramsay was also a keen cricketer, and whilst resident in Launceston played a single first-class match for Tasmania. In the match, against Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in January 1898, he recorded a pair, failing to score in either innings. Graduating with a Master of Surgery degree from the University of Melbourne in 1902, Ramsay published 24 papers, including a discussion of his treatment of hydatid disease as well as lecturing in Australia and overseas.