Daniel “Danny” Ramsay

Guardsman · #2660174 · Mentioned in Despatches (MID)

What this roll records

HIS ENLISTMENT, AND THE DAY HE JOINED THE GROUP — both off his own Army Form B.103. He was posted to the GUARDS DEPOT ON 14 FEBRUARY 1940 and joined the Training Battalion as a Guardsman on 17 April 1940; through the Holding Battalion to the 3rd Battalion on 5 August 1940; in EGYPT by 27 December 1940; employed with the 22ND GUARDS BRIGADE from 29 May to 4 August 1941; and POSTED TO THE LONG RANGE DESERT GROUP ON 13 SEPTEMBER 1942. His Mention in Despatches was for services in the Middle East over the period 1 May to 22 October 1942 — a period that opens four months before he reached the Group. HE WAS G2 PATROL’S NAVIGATOR, and he was with CAPTAIN BERNARD BRUCE on the “LAST PATROL” OF FEBRUARY 1943. Bruce is on this roll, at #74477, and his card already records him as PATROL COMMANDER OF G2 on the authority of W. B. Kennedy Shaw’s history, Appendix 4. The commander and the navigator of the same patrol, reached from two directions and by different hands. The patrol is covered in the 2025 edition of “Tracks”, the magazine commemorating the Group, which this site does not yet hold. CAPTURED ON LEROS, 22 NOVEMBER 1943. THE ISLAND HAD ALREADY FALLEN: the Leros garrison surrendered on 16 NOVEMBER 1943, six days before the date on his form. Whether the Army recorded him missing late, or whether he was still at large on the island through those six days, IS NOT ESTABLISHED HERE, and both readings are left standing rather than one being chosen for tidiness. See Brendan O’Carroll, “The Long Range Desert Group in the Aegean”. Sources: Tony, 1 September 2026; Guardsman Ramsay’s Army Form B.103; and this roll’s own card for Captain Bruce.

Dodecanese operations, 1943: prisoner of war 22 Nov 1943. Source: Roll of British & Rhodesian PoW and KIA (Appendix V), compiled by Jim Patch, LRDG (UK) Association.

Surname corrected to the official spelling “Ramsay”, per his Mention in Despatches certificate and medal-group naming (Guardsman D. Ramsay, Coldstream Guards). The the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll had recorded it as “Ramsey”.

Mentioned in Despatches — London Gazette, 24 June 1943 (Coldstream Guards, serving with the LRDG).

Army Form B.103 service record: Coldstream Guards, posted to the Long Range Desert Group on 13 September 1942; reported MISSING ON 22 NOVEMBER 1943 and taken prisoner of war; confirmed a prisoner on a document dated 10 April 1944; RELEASED BY ALLIED FORCES ON 28 NOVEMBER 1944, the form recording the date of his arrival in the United Kingdom as not known; awarded the Africa Star with the 8th Army clasp. CORRECTION, 1 SEPTEMBER 2026 — AND IT IS THIS SITE THAT WAS WRONG. This card previously gave his missing date as 24 January 1943 and his return to the United Kingdom as late November 1943, both read off his Army Form B.103 by the compiler of this site in August 2026. BOTH WERE MISREADINGS. Read at magnification the form plainly gives 22.11.43 and 28.11.44. WORSE THAN A WRONG DATE, THE ERROR MANUFACTURED A DISAGREEMENT THAT NEVER EXISTED: on the strength of it this card treated the service record as authoritative against the Roll of British & Rhodesian PoW and KIA (Appendix V, compiled by Jim Patch of the LRDG (UK) Association) and against Brendan O’Carroll’s “The Long Range Desert Group in the Aegean”, and demoted both to “an earlier source … kept here as a note”. THEY BOTH SAID 22 NOVEMBER 1943, AND THEY WERE BOTH RIGHT. The form agrees with them. The only thing that ever put the three at odds was the reading on this page. It is recorded here rather than quietly removed, because a roll that hides its own corrections is not worth reading.

Aegean/Dodecanese operations, 1943: listed as Guardsman Ramsey, service no. 2660174; taken prisoner of war, 22 Nov 1943. Source: Brendan O’Carroll, ‘The Long Range Desert Group in the Aegean’ (Appendix V, Roll of British & Rhodesian PoW and KIA).

The roll formerly carried this man twice, as “Ramsay, Daniel” and as “Ramsey, D.” — the same service number, 2660174, and the same rank of Guardsman. The two were merged in August 2026, keeping this entry, whose spelling is confirmed by his own Mention in Despatches certificate and the naming on his medal group. Not to be confused with Lance Corporal Richard Andrew Ramsay, NZ #1325 of T2 Patrol, who is a different man on this roll.

Checked (2026): a search of The London Gazette on service number 2660174 returns no wartime notice of any kind. THAT DOES NOT PUT HIS MENTION IN DESPATCHES IN DOUBT. The Mention recorded on this card comes from his own MID CERTIFICATE and from the naming on his medal group, which is primary evidence of the award and was never a Gazette reference. The likeliest explanation for the absence is the Gazette’s scanned text: the same pages that misprint Booth as “Bodth” will as readily mangle a seven-digit number in a long Mentioned in Despatches list. Recorded so the search is not repeated.

BORN 16 SEPTEMBER 1919, DIED 1 JULY 2001, AND KNOWN AS DANNY. This roll held none of the three: his card carried his service, his captivity and his Mention in Despatches, but not the span of his life or the name his family used. HIS MEDAL GROUP IS NOW ON THIS CARD as it hangs framed — photograph, Mention in Despatches certificate, the five medals and the name plate reading “2660174 Guardsman Daniel Ramsay, Coldstream Guards” — and it confirms from the objects themselves the entitlement recorded above from his papers: the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star with the 8th Army clasp, the Italy Star, the Defence Medal, and the War Medal 1939-45 with the oak leaf for the Mention. THE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE FRAMED MEDAL GROUP WAS CONTRIBUTED BY MARTIN McNAB. The dates and the nickname were supplied by the keeper of this roll, 1 September 2026.

THE STATUS FIELD ON THIS CARD WAS STILL CARRYING THE MISREADING. It read “PoW — North Africa, 24 Jan 1943”, which came from this roll’s own misreading of his Army Form B.103 — corrected in the text of this card, but missed in the field that draws the badge. HE WAS TAKEN ON LEROS ON 22 NOVEMBER 1943, and all three independent authorities agree on it: Jim Patch’s Appendix V, Brendan O’Carroll’s Aegean roll, and the B.103 itself read at magnification (22.11.43). The field now says so. Source: Roll of British & Rhodesian PoW and KIA (Appendix V), compiled by Jim Patch, the late secretary of the LRDG (UK) Association, printed in Brendan O’Carroll, “The Long Range Desert Group in the Aegean”.

HIS ARMY RELEASE CERTIFICATE, 20 FEBRUARY 1946, AND THE ONE ASSESSMENT OF HIM IN ANOTHER MAN’S WORDS THAT THIS ROLL HOLDS. Stamped RELEASE OFFICE, TRAINING BATTALION, COLDSTREAM GUARDS, and issued at PIRBRIGHT CAMP, SURREY. MILITARY CONDUCT: “EXEMPLARY”. The testimonial beneath, in the officer’s hand: “An honest and reliable man who has an excellent Army record. He works hard and is smart and intelligent. He is trustworthy and reliable.” (The hand is faint; that is a careful reading, not a certain one.) He was dispersed through the Military Dispersal Unit at ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE on 21 FEBRUARY 1946, with 56 days’ release leave ending in April 1946. His own signature, D. Ramsay, is on the form. IT CLOSES THE SERVICE THIS CARD SETS OUT: Guards Depot 14 February 1940, the LRDG from 13 September 1942, missing on Leros 22 November 1943, a prisoner until November 1944 — and out with an exemplary character in February 1946. A SECOND PHOTOGRAPH ARRIVED WITH IT AND CARRIES AN UNRESOLVED QUESTION: three men at a photographer’s backdrop, the mount inscribed “STAN. DAN. BILL.” The family places Ramsay on the RIGHT; the inscription read left to right would place Dan in the CENTRE. Both are recorded on the picture itself and neither is dressed up as settled. Source: original documents and prints held by the Ramsay family (Martin McNab), photographed and contributed through Tony Moore, 2 September 2026.

WHERE HIS THINGS ARE, AND WHOSE THEY ARE. Everything of Daniel Ramsay’s on this site comes from ONE FAMILY HOLDING through ONE NAMED PERSON: MARTIN McNAB, HIS SON-IN-LAW, who married his daughter. The framed medal display, the Mention in Despatches certificate, the medals out of the frame, his Army Form B.103, the desert photograph, the original portrait print, the photograph of three men inscribed “STAN. DAN. BILL.” and his Army release certificate of February 1946 are all from that source, reaching this roll through Tony Moore. WHY IT IS WORTH SAYING. A card assembled from archives is only as good as its citations; a card assembled from a family holding can be checked against the objects themselves, and this one has been — the B.103 corrected a date this roll had misread, and the medals in the frame confirmed an entitlement recorded from the Gazette. It is also why the identification of him in the three-men photograph carries weight: it is not a deduction from the picture, it is his son-in-law saying which man he is. Source: Martin McNab, through Tony Moore, 2 September 2026.

See him in the full roll →

Where this comes from

• Listed in the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll.

In collaboration withThe Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) Preservation SocietyTo add information about this man, or note a correction, please post in the Society’s Facebook Group →

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Not By Strength But By Guile