Ramsay was born on 8 November 1966[5] in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland.[6] From the age of five, he was raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.[7] Ramsay is the second of four children. He has an older sister, Diane; a younger brother, Ronnie, who Ramsay revealed had been behind bars for heroin possession as a juvenile;[8] and a younger sister, Yvonne. Ramsay's father, Gordon James Senior (died 1997),[9] was – at various times – a swimming pool manager, a welder, and a shopkeeper; his sister Yvonne and their mother, Helen (maiden name: Cosgrove),[9] have been nurses.[10]
Ramsay has described his early life as "hopelessly itinerant"; his family moved constantly due to the aspirations and failures of his father, who was an at-times-violent alcoholic.[9] In 1976, they finally settled in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he grew up in the Bishopton area of the town.[8] In his autobiography, Humble Pie,[10] he describes his early life as being marked by abuse and neglect from this "hard-drinking womaniser."[10][11] At the age of 16, Ramsay moved out of the family house into a flat in Banbury.[12]