Born the eldest son of Fred and Madge Mitchell in Coff's Harbour in 1966, Henry
Ramsay was always the prankster and always on the lookout for easy money. He
constantly came up with new ideas and daft schemes to make a fast buck, and
although they would invariably fail, Henry always remained optimistic and
upbeat.
Henry fell in with the wrong crowd when he was 19 and just out of school.
The gang took part in an armed robbery in which Henry was framed as the ring
leader. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. Upon his
release in 1986, Henry headed for his mother's house in Ramsay Street,
Erinsborough, but Madge didn't want him back. Just as Henry was leaving, his
younger sister Charlene came running after him to tell him that Madge had
changed her mind and had agreed to let him stay. He moved into No. 24 with
his mum and sister, determined to make a clean break. Luckily, Henry hadn't
lost his comical sense of humour in prison and refused to let local
busybody's like Mrs. Mangel stand in his way of making a go of things. Henry
found it hard to find a job at first, since few employers would consider
hiring anyone with a criminal record. Undeterred, Henry decided to work for
himself, and when his cousin Shane - who had wrongly accused Henry of
stealing $100 from him upon his release - left Erinsborough, Henry took over
his gardening business and made a huge success of it.
Henry worked hard to prove to Madge that he was back on the straight and
narrow. But when he met with a former cellmate Kenny Larkin for a few beers
at The Waterhole, where Madge worked as barmaid, the meeting was met with
disapproval from Madge. Madge's reservations about the reunion were
justified after it resulted in her boss Paul Robinson accusing Madge of
theft. The mix-up began when Henry paid for a round of drinks with a $50
bill, and Kenny, upon buying the second round, also claimed to have paid
with a $50 note. Madge was forced to do a till check, and concluded that
only one $50 note had been taken in by her - the one from Henry. However,
Kenny proved that he had given her $50 by reciting the last three digits on
the note, causing Paul to suspect Henry and Madge of being part of a scam.
However, Henry was determined to prove his and his mother's innocence and
after tracking down Kenny's sister, she revealed that Kenny had memorised
the last three digits on Henry's note - an old scam of her brother's.
Following Charlene's wedding to Scott Robinson, Henry and Madge changed
their surnames from Mitchell to Ramsay - Madge's family name - after debts
Fred had incurred began to get passed on to them. Madge later became a
Bishop when she married her old childhood sweetheart, Harold Bishop, with
whom Henry had a surprisingly good relationship with, most likely because he
took great pleasure in sending up the stuffy Harold.
Always one with an eye for the ladies, Henry had no shortage of female
admirers with his curly gold locks and muscular physique. Charlene's
arch-enemy from high school, Sue Parker, was one of the first Erinsborough
girls to date Henry, and she was followed by madcap Melanie Pearson, who
horrified Madge when Henry brought her home, due to her seal-like laugh.
True love came for Henry when Des Clarke's half-sister Sally Wells moved
into Ramsay Street. Local mechanic Tony Romeo also had his eye on Sally, and
engaged in a fight to win her affections with Henry - even pushing him into
the pool at Lassiter's on one occasion. But after Henry proved to be of
enormous support to Sally as she tracked down and was reunited with her
estranged father Malcolm, she fell in love with him and they started seeing
each other. However, Sally was offered the chance to go to Europe with
Eileen Clarke, she decided to go, despite a marriage proposal from Henry,
and they parted simply as friends.
When Henry's granddad, Dan came to stay, he told Henry that he should find
gold in the creek at the bottom of the Ramsay garden, leading Henry to buy a
metal detector in the hope of unearthing a fortune. When he failed to find
anything of value, Henry turned his attentions to the other gardens in
Ramsay Street. While his efforts failed to make him a millionaire, Henry did
come across a gun in Mrs. Mangel's back garden. It transpired the gun
belonged to her estranged son, Joe, and Henry helped Jane, Mrs. Mangel's
granddaughter, track Joe down. Henry and Joe immediately hit it off, since
they both shared a love of sports, a few tinnies and a good laugh and their
friendship extended to a partnership when Joe bought into the gardening
business.
When Bronwyn Davies came to live in Ramsay Street to be little Jamie
Clarke's nanny, it was love at first sight for Henry. Bronwyn liked Henry
too, but only as a good friend and instead she fell for Mike Young. Henry
was left to watch from a distance as Bronwyn and Mike dated while inside he
was passionately in love with her. And even after Bronwyn split up with
Mike, she still failed to see anything other a friend in Henry. However, as
the months passed, Henry and Bronwyn became more and more attracted to each
other - except now, neither would admit it to the other. It was only after
Bronwyn accidentally pushed Henry down the stairs out the back of No.30 and
he appeared to be unconscious that Bronwyn professed her love for him. Henry
was quick to regain consciousness upon hearing Bronwyn loved him, and they
finally got together.
Ups and downs followed for the couple, and they even ended up calling the
relationship off at one stage. During this period, Bronwyn's old flame from
Narrabri arrived in Erinsborough and she started seeing him again. In the
midst of this, Bronwyn began receiving a series of poison pen letters and
seeing how hurt Bron was by them, Henry took to staking out No. 30's post box
from his car overnight. However, Henry fell asleep and only woke as the
culprit was driving off on his motorbike. Attempting to save Bronwyn from
further upset, Henry tried to hide the new letter from Bronwyn just as she
emerged from No. 30 to check the post. But Bronwyn mistakenly thought Henry
was the culprit after catching him red-handed with the letter, devastating
Henry, who couldn't believe she would think him capable of such a thing.
Bronwyn quickly realised she was being ridiculous by even considering Henry
would do such a thing, and she apologised to him for accusing him. And after
it was discovered that her old flame was responsible for the pen letters,
Henry was there to comfort Bronwyn, and they got back together.
As time went by, the couple found it increasingly difficult to be together.
Bronwyn's younger sister Sharon was staying with her and the Ramsay house
was full since the arrival of Harold's daughter Kerry and granddaughter Sky.
It was rare for Henry and Bronwyn to get a moment alone, so when the
opportunity arose for them to have No. 30 to themselves one night, they
jumped at the chance. However, they were awoken the next morning by
Bronwyn's stern Aunt Edie - who owned the house - arriving from Narrabri.
With only a towel around his waist, Henry was forced to run out the back
door while Bronwyn distracted her fussy aunt. But the towel got caught in
the door, forcing Henry to run naked across Ramsay Street to the sanctuary
of his own place. This was the final straw for the couple and they decided
to move in with each other. Unable to afford a place of their own, Madge
came to their rescue when she agreed to let them move in with her - much to
the dismay of the fiercely conservative Harold.
Henry soon proposed and the couple planned to marry in a double ceremony
with Joe and Kerry. Henry's bucks party led to another bout of having to run
naked through the neighbourhood - this time after Joe and his mates had
stripped Henry and tied him up as a scarecrow on a farm. Luckily, Henry got
home to Ramsay Street on the morning of the wedding, and excitedly prepared
to make Bronwyn his wife. But Bron's father Gordon persisted in talking her
out of marrying a "no-hoper" like Henry. Bronwyn managed to convince her
father that she loved Henry and he loved her, and a compromise was reached
whereby Bronwyn would postpone the nuptials by a few months. Henry was
heartbroken when Bronwyn called over to tell him the wedding was off, but he
comforted by the fact that she wasn't ending their relationship and was
still planning to marry him.
Meanwhile, Henry found himself a new career - as a DJ on Erinsborough
Community Radio. Over the months he gathered an immense popularity from
listeners, and even found one listener, Cassandra, falling in love with him.
The job on radio eventually led to Henry being offered a much higher-paying
job as a DJ in New Zealand. After weighing up the pros and cons, Henry and
Bronwyn decided that Henry should take the job and set up home down there so
that Bronwyn could join him in a few months.
Henry put his joking aside at the airport as he bid a tearful farewell to
Madge and kissed his beloved 'Bronny' goodbye. The couple were reunited a
few months later when Bronwyn landed a job as a vet in New Zealand and Henry
finally got the woman of his dreams when they married at last soon after.
Trivia Notes
• In 1989, Craig's role of Henry won him a Logie award for Most Popular Actor. The following year he picked up another two, for Most Popular Actor again, and Most Popular Personality
Tenure
429-1099
Biography by Moe
