Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A C.M.G. and Great War D.S.O. group of eight awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Sumner Ryan, Royal Horse Artillery, latterly an Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commissioner, Intelligence Agent and a Member of the House of Representatives, Australia

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamel, with top bar; 1914-15 Star (Capt., R.H.A.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col.); France, Legion of Honour, 5th Class breast badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, mounted for wear; Japan, Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd Class neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel; Portugal, Military Order of Aviz, 2nd Class breast star by F. da Costa, Lisbon, silver, silver-gilt and enamel; together a mounted group of eight miniature dress medals, similar to the above, plus a separate miniature War Medal 1939-45, good very fine and better (17) £1600-2000

D.S.O. London Gazette 3 June 1918.

M.I.D. (6) London Gazette 1 January 1916; 4 January 1917; 15 May 1917; 20 May 1918; 20 December 1918; 5 July 1919.

Rupert Sumner Ryan was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 6 May 1884, the eldest child of Sir Charles Snodgrass Ryan, Surgeon, and his wife, Alice Elfrida, nee Sumner. He was educated at Geelong Church of England Grammar School, Harrow School, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, where he graduated with the Sword of Honour. Commissioned in the Royal Horse Artillery on 21 December 1904, Ryan was serving in England with ‘T’ Battery, R.H.A. when the Great War began and was promoted to Captain in October 1914. In December 1914 his unit joined the 7th Division on the Western Front and in April 1915 he was transferred to Divisional Headquarters. Ryan was wounded in May during the battle of Festubert. He subsequently served on the Staffs of XIII Corps, 1915-16; the Reserve Fifth Army, 1916; the Cavalry Corps, 1916-17; and the First Army, 1917-20. For his many wartime services he was six times mentioned in despatches; awarded the D.S.O.; received the brevets of Major, January 1916 and Lieutenant-Colonel, June 1919, and was awarded the Legion of Honour 5th Class, Order of Aviz 3rd Class and Order of the Sacred Treasure 3rd Class.

Serving in post-war Germany, Ryan was appointed Chief of Staff to the Military Governor of Cologne in 1919. In January 1920 he was transferred to the headquarters of the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission at Coblenz and in 1928 he was appointed High Commissioner and was awarded the C.M.G. He had married Lady Rosemary Constance Ferelith, daughter of the Earl of Erroll in May 1924. He retired from the Army in 1929 and joined the armaments firm Vickers Ltd as a salesman. At the same time it is believed he was an intelligence agent of the British Government. He resigned from Vickers in 1934 and in 1935 he returned to Australia, farming land near Melbourne. During the Second World War he joined the Australian Military Forces and held administrative posts at Army Headquarters, Melbourne until September 1940, when he stood for and gained the seat of Flinders for the United Australia Party in the House of Representatives. He died suddenly on 25 August 1952.

With a folder of copied research.