Ian Ramsey - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Ramsey was born in Kearsley, near Bolton, Lancashire, an area noted for small industries and factories. He was the sole child born to Arthur and Mary Ramsey, and was raised by them in the Christian faith. He attended primary school at St. John's Church in Farnworth, Bolton, and then proceeded on a scholarship to Farnworth Grammar School where he studied Latin, mathematics, physics and chemistry. He won a scholarship that enabled him to study at Cambridge University in the 1930s and graduated with an M.A. in 1940. At Cambridge he was influenced by Charles Raven the Regius Professor of Divinity and A. C. Ewing. Raven spurred Ramsey's interests in the relationship between science and religion, while Ewing guided him into studying metaphysics.

After graduating from Cambridge, Ramsey then enrolled as candidate for ordination in the Church of England at Ripon Hall, near Oxford, and began his theological studies there. During his studies he served as an assistant curate at Headington Quarry and it was there that he met his wife Margretta McKay. In 1943, upon completing his theological degree and ordination Ramsey then took on the role of Chaplain at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was elected as a Fellow and Director of Studies in theology and moral science in 1944. It was also in 1944 that he was appointed as university lecturer in divinity and Canon Theologian at Leicester Cathedral. He held the role of Canon until 1966 when he was elected the Bishop of Durham.