Officers Waterloo, 1st Life Guards. Quartermaster. Having received his commission from Corporal Major (R.S.M.) served at Waterloo being the only one of the 6 Q.M.s. of the 1st & 2nd Lifeguards to remain unscathed by the evening with 4 being killed and 1 wounded. The 1st Lifeguards had been led in 11 separate charges by their severely wounded Colonel Ferrier. Ferrier being killed and all remaining officers casualty or unhorsed the final charge was led by a Quartermaster who almost immediately fell wounded

Waterloo,

Qr. Mstr. John Ramsden, 1st Regiment Life Guards.

John  Ramsden, b. Wheatley, Yorkshire 1765. Created in 1788, Ramsden was of the first to enlist in the regiment in 1789. He was appointed Corporal of Horse on 24 February 1793, and promoted to Corporal-Major on 7 July 1803, in which rank he was discharged on 3 August 1805, and appointed Quartermaster on the following day. He is shown on the muster roll taken on 24 June 1815, and is the senior of the four Quartermasters who served in the 1st Life Guards at Waterloo. Of the other three, one was wounded and two were killed. In addition both of the Q.M.s. the 2nd Life Guards  were killed on the day.

From a letter written after the battle by Pte. James Wilson, 1st Life Guards.

The nearer night approached the more hot the battle became.  [O]ur cavalry cut to peices [sic][,] our Infantry formed in Squares[.] I thought it was impossible to save Brussells [sic][.] Where the 7 [sic (1) Dragoons Guards were I know not but ours the Blues & the 2nd about a Squadron strong were just advancing to charge a line of Infantry when I received a musket Ball through my neck. Fortunately my horse was able to carry me to Brussels. [S]o many of our officers were at this moment either killed[, wounded or dismantled that the commant [sic] fell to LW Dobson (Quartermaster) & he was almost instantly wounded by a shell.

When James Wilson wrote that they made several charges that day he was being modest. He was on the field to see his Regimental Colonel Samuel Ferrior killed. We know that Col. Ferrior was killed toward the end of that terrible day. We also know that he was credited with leading his regiment in no less than eleven charges on 18 June. The L.W. Dobson that James Wilson saw being hit shortly after taking command of the regiment was in fact the Regimental Quartermaster, which suggests that most if not all of the other officers had been incapacitated by that point.

His name is shown in the Army List for 1830 under ‘Officers who have been allowed to Retire on their full pay’ Ramsden died on the 14th September, 1831, borough of Chelsea . His certificate states ‘departed this life due to a gradual decay of nature.’ His widow made claim for an officer’s widows pension on 1 October 1831.