Richard Ryan (GC)

Lieutenant Commander Richard John Hammersley Ryan GC RN was posthumously awarded the George Cross, as was Chief Petty Officer Reginald Vincent Ellingworth for the "great gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty" they displayed when losing their lives while attempting to defuse a mine which had fallen on Dagenham in Essex on 21 September 1940.

Biography
Ryan was from a naval family, the son of Admiral Frank Edward Cavendish Ryan CBE. He joined the Royal Navy in the early 1920s, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1925, and Lieutenant Commander on 1 August 1933.

21 September 1940
The pair had defused many such devices together, and had just successfully defused a device in Hornchurch which was threatening an aerodrome and explosives factory when they were called to Dagenham. The bomb there was hanging from its parachute on a warehouse.

George Cross citation


Notice of the award appeared in the London Gazette of the 20 December 1940.