{"id":26562,"date":"2023-07-20T01:01:26","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T23:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com\/?p=15194"},"modified":"2023-07-20T23:34:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:34:33","slug":"chris-ramsey-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/chris-ramsey-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Ramsey on Who Do You Think You Are?: Everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Ramsey learned about his ancestors’ experiences in the First and Second World Wars when he appeared on Who Do You Think You Are? <\/p>

By Rosemary Collins\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 20 July 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Stand-up comedian, TV presenter and co-host of podcast Shagged, Married, Annoyed<\/em> Chris Ramsey was born on 3 August 1986 and grew up in South Shields.<\/p>\n

At the start of his episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em><\/a>, he says he doesn\u2019t know much about his family history: \u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated about why I\u2019m here, how I\u2019m here, how lucky I am, what would happen if that didn\u2019t happen? Who in my family had to survive to have kids, and their kid survived, and here we are?\u201d<\/p>\n

To start his journey, Chris goes to visit his parents. He learns that his maternal grandfather Alf Lawson fought in the Navy<\/a> in the Second World War<\/a>. He\u2019s intrigued by some of Alf\u2019s mementoes \u2013 a photograph of the ruins of Nagasaki in the devastating aftermath of the nuclear bomb dropped in 1945 marked \u201cOfficial photograph not to be communicated to the press\u201d, and a medal with writing on it in Russian. He also learns that his paternal great grandfather Dryden Gordon Young fought in the First World War<\/a> \u2013 Chris\u2019 father thinks he was in Gallipoli campaign before being captured in France.<\/p>\n

Chris heads to Blandford Camp in Dorset, where Dryden\u2019s battalion, the Collingwood Battalion, trained. He meets historian Professor Catriona Pennell. She tells him that Dryden was in the Royal Naval Division<\/a>. At the beginning of the First World War, the Royal Navy had too many reservists, so the Division was created. The excess navy personnel were under the command of the Navy, but fought on land. Dryden fought in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, where the British and French forces fought to gain control of the Dardanelles Straits. Dryden was wounded in the face with a bayonet and the Collingwood Battalion were described as \u201calmost annihilated\u201d, but he survived. Dryden was then very nearly deployed to fight in the bloody Battle of the Somme, but avoided it because he came down with scabies. He then fought in the Battle of Passchendaele, but was captured \u2013 which was another stroke of luck, because it was less dangerous than being on the battlefield, although he would have had to put up with very poor food in the POW camp.<\/p>\n

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