The Admiral Ramsay Prize
Posted On: 12/06/20
The Admiral Ramsay Prize is an essay, visual arts and poetry competition for current CRGS students, with a cash prize awarded by the Old Colcestrian Society. This is the inaugural year of the prize, with the topic being ‘What the Second World War Means to Me’. Entries could have included some form of recognition or appreciation of the sacrifices made by those who died and some consideration of the relevance of these sacrifices today.
The winner was decided by a committee comprised of Old Colcestrians and current staff members. Congratulations to Sam Durban (Year 9) who won first place for his artwork entitled ‘No Higher Honour’. Sam's entry may be included in a book that the OCS is intending to publish on the students and staff of CRGS who were killed in World War Two.
The annual Prize is in memory of Admiral Ramsay, a former student of Colchester Royal Grammar School and our most distinguished OC. In 1940 Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay masterminded Operation Dynamo, the successful evacuation of British Forces from Dunkirk. He then planned the successful invasions of North Africa and Sicily in 1942 and 1943. On 6th June 1944, D-Day, as Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, he organised Operation Neptune, the greatest seaborne invasion in history, when, with 7,000 ships, he delivered over 160,000 men onto the Normandy beaches to begin the liberation of Europe. On 2nd January 1945, Ramsay was killed when his plane crashed on take-off near Paris, en route to a conference in Brussels.
