Alexander Robert Maule Ramsay was born on 29 May 1881 in London, as the third son of
John Ramsay, 13th Earl of Dalhousie, and his wife, Lady Ida Louisa Bennet, daughter of
Charles Bennet, 6th Earl of Tankerville. He entered the
Royal Navy as a
cadet on
HMS Britannia in 1894. He first went to sea on , the
flagship of Admiral
Sir Walter Kerr in the
Channel Squadron, In early December 1901 he was posted to the
cruiser , but the order was cancelled as he was instead ordered to the cruiser as she left to become
flagship of the
Pacific Station in January 1902. He was promoted to
lieutenant on 29 May 1902, and later the same year was posted to the cruiser as she was commissioned for the Pacific Station. In October 1911, he became a naval aide-de-camp to the Duke of Connaught, then
Governor General of Canada. He returned to active naval duty in 1913 as the gunnery officer of the battlecruiser in the
Mediterranean. Ramsay took part in several important naval operations of the
First World War. He took part in the first phase of the bombardment of the
Dardanelles forts in November 1914, and later at
Gallipoli. He received the
Distinguished Service Order for his conduct there. Ramsay rose to the rank of commander in late 1914 and became flag commander of the Second Squadron in 1916. He gained promotion to captain in 1919 and served as the naval attaché in
Paris for the next three years. ==Marriage into the royal family==