He had limited schooling and, after varied work including an ironmongery apprenticeship, returned to the family business of shoe manufacturing.

Thomas Ramsay's business centered around production in the St Cuthbert's area of Maybole[4] and distribution through Glasgow.

[5] Maybole footwear manufacturers shared a nationwide retail presence throughout the United Kingdom and some overseas outlets including Canada.

[6] In the early twentieth century, the Ramsay interest faced rising costs and automation challenges.

[8] During the Great Depression of the 1920s, the business fell away and the Ramsay shoe factory in Maybole was repurposed to shops.

[13] At the time the Baptist Union was a relatively new Church institution, having re-formed in 1869 from an earlier (lapsed) incarnation in the 1830s.

[17] Despite donations from Thomas Ramsay and other elders, Maybole Baptist Church carried debt for some time, although reaching debt-free status in the 1920s.

As one example of international concern, Thomas Ramsay's presidency addressed persecution of Baptists in Russia and Romania, which had been exacerbated by famine.

[24] At the end of Thomas Ramsay's presidency, the Scottish Baptist Union renewed its protest at Church of Scotland advantages.

His third wife conducted several talks and public events, including a 1925 tribute to sermons by Charles H Spurgeon[31] and a 1932 review of missionary work by Christina Moir Forsyth in South Africa.