The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Ramsay, Hon. John James Garden
Ramsay, Hon. John James Garden, M.L.C., for some time represented Mount Barker in the Legislative Assembly of South Australia, but was in 1880 elected to the Legislative Council, for which he sat down to the day of his death. Mr. Ramsay was Commissioner of Public Works in the Ayers Ministry from Jan. so March 1872, and in the two Bray Governments from June 1881 to June 1884. He was Chief Secretary under Mr. Playford from June 1887 to June 1889. On Jan. 18th, 1890, he died from the effects of injuries sustained through the bursting of a lamp in a railway carriage in which he was travelling. In 1886 Mr. Ramsay received the Queen's permission to bear the title of Honourable within the colony.