He graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and joined the staff of the British Museum of Natural History in 1910.

From 1917 to 1919, he served in Salonika, Greece, first as a civilian protozoologist, then as captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

He served as general secretary and twice as president of the British Mycological Society, and was long editor of its Transactions.

vol.9 published Ramsbottomia, which is a genus of fungi in the family Pyronemataceae and named in Ramsbottom's honour.

But these facts, even when accepted, are often misinterpreted, almost as if in a superfluity of naughtiness, and again there is confusion.Notable among his published works are: Media related to John Ramsbottom (mycologist) at Wikimedia Commons