Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From How We Served
 
The final resting place for; - 1397 & 440 Sergeant James Ramsden of Manchester, England, and Fairfield, Victoria, had been employed as a carpenter when he enlisted for War Service on the 12th of October 1914.

Allocated to the 1st Reinforcements for the 14th Battalion 1st AIF, James embarked for Egypt and further training on the 22nd of December.

With his Unit committed to the Dardanelles campaign, James’s Battalion arrived on Gallipoli within the first twenty-four hours following the initial landing on the 25th of April 1915.

James’s service in the trenches would be interrupted by sickness, and back injury and would see him returned to Mudros Island from Gallipoli on multiple occasions, only to recover and be deemed fit to return to his Battalion in the field.

Following the general evacuation of Gallipoli, James returned to Egypt, and when hearing of the call for volunteers to join the Imperial Camel Corps, James transferred from the 14th Battalion to the newly created formation on the 25th of January 1916.
James’s service in the desert campaign against the Turkish forces would be continuous, and following the disbandment of the Camel Corps, James’s transferred over to the 8th Light Horse on the 1st of July 1918.

His service in the field again would be continual, aside periods of sickness which following his recovery James would be returned to his Unit. Having served overseas since the beginning of the War, James was granted ‘1914 Leave Furlough’ for which those original members of the 1st AIF who had embarked from Australia in 1914 would be granted to so as to return to Australia for two months.

James departed Egypt bound for his return to Australia on the 23rd of December 1918. Following his return to Melbourne, and with the ‘Great War’ ending in November 1918, James was granted his official discharge from the 1st AIF for his re-entry into civilian life on the 1st of April 1919.

In the years following the end of World War One, James again sort service in the Permanent Military Forces, and enlisted in the newly formed Royal Australian Air Force on the 18th of December 1923 for a 6-year engagement.

Mustered as a Corporal Air Mechanic, James was posted to No 1 Squadron RAAF, where he was based at Point Cook, Victoria, and again his services would be continuous. On the 21st of April 1927, with the arrival of the Duke and Dutchess of York in Melbourne, James along with his pilot, and a second aircraft, with two crew members aboard were killed outright during a mid-air collision over Melbourne, in the presence of members of the Royal Family and thousands of spectators alike.

Corporal James Ramsden was aged 31 at the time of his sudden death.

Following the recovery of those killed during the air accident, James, an original ANZAC who had served throughout the ‘Great War’ from its start to the end, was formally laid to rest within Fawkner Memorial Park Cemetery, Victoria.