John Ryan was a native of Kilkenny city, Ireland. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1857. He won the award at the age of 34 for his actions during the siege of the city of Lucknow capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India. The Victoria Cross is awarded for ‘most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy’. The Victoria Cross has been awarded to 168 soldiers from Ireland, six of whom were born in Kilkenny.
John Ryan was born in Kilkenny in 1823. He was serving with the British Army in India in the middle of the nineteenth century. On September 26th 1857 the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, of which Private Ryan was a member, were fighting to relieve the siege of Lucknow. Two surgeons and a group of soldiers, including Ryan, found themselves besieged in a house in the city. A Captain Arnold, who was wounded, was in a dooly (covered litter) in the street outside. Ryan, with another soldier Private Peter McManus, went under heavy fire into the street and brought the wounded Captain to safety.
For his actions Ryan was decorated with the Victoria Cross by Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram, KCB at a ceremony in India on October 11th 1857. The citation for the award read as follows:
‘A party, on the 26th of September, 1857, was shut up and besieged in a house in the city of Lucknow, by the rebel sepoys…Private McManus in conjunction with Private John Ryan, rushed into the street, and took Captain Arnold, of the 1st Madras Fusiliers, out of a dooly, and brought him into the house in spite of a heavy fire, in which Captain Arnold was again wounded. In addition to the above act, Private Ryan distinguished himself throughout the day by his intrepidity, and especially devoted himself to rescuing the wounded in the neighbourhood from being massacred. He was most anxious to visit every dooly’.
Private Ryan was later promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Five months after his promotion Ryan was killed whilst fighting in the siege of Cawnpore (now Kanpur) just over 80km from Lucknow. He is buried in the Old British Cemetery Kanpur Uttar Pradesh, India. Sergeant Ryan’s Victoria Cross is held at the National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea London.
Sergeant John Ryan VC was killed in action in India at the age of 34 in the year 1858 On This Day.
Victoria Cross