Alfred Ryder

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Phillipps Ryder (27 June 1820 – 30 April 1888) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he undertook the role of transporting Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela, the Portuguese ambassador, back home to Lisbon and then delivering the Percy Doyle, the British ambassador to the Republic of Mexico, to Mexico City. He then led a naval brigade dispatched to Nicaragua to deal with the unlawful detention of two British subjects. He pursued the Nicaraguan commander, a Colonel Salas, for 30 miles up the San Juan River and captured the fort at Serapique.

Ryder became commanding officer of the frigate HMS Dauntless in which he saw action in the Black Sea and then took part in the Battle of Kinburn during the Crimean War. He went on to be Controller of the Coastguard, Commander-in-Chief, China Station and then Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. In retirement he was an active member of the Church of England Purity Society. He suffered from depression and died after falling into the River Thames at the Vauxhall steamboat pier.

Early career

Born the son of the Rt Rev Henry Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield and Sophia Ryder (née Phillipps), Ryder joined the Royal Navy in May 1833. After passing his exams at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth in July 1839, he was promoted to lieutenant on 2 July 1841 and was appointed to the fifth-rate HMS Belvidera in the Mediterranean Fleet. Promoted to commander on 26 May 1847, he became commanding officer of the steam sloop HMS Vixen on the North America and West Indies Station. In HMS Dauntless he saw action in the Black Sea and then took part in the Battle of Kinburn in October 1855 during the Crimean War. He was awarded the Turkish Order of the Medjidie, fourth class on 3 April 1858. At this time he also wrote a paper on methods of ascertaining the distance between ships at sea. Ryder became Second-in-Command of the Channel Squadron in 1868 and naval attaché in Paris in 1869. This was a particularly difficult time in Paris with the French parliament voting to declare war on the Kingdom of Prussia in July 1870, the rapid mobilisation of the German coalition and then the French army being decisively defeated at the Battle of Sedan in September 1870 and at the Siege of Metz in October 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. Ryder became naval attaché to the Maritime Courts of Europe in February 1873. he became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in November 1879.

Ryder retired in 1882 and became a trustee of the Church of England Purity Society, an organisation founded by Edward Benson, a former Archbishop of Canterbury. Ryder wrote letters under the pen name of XYZ drawing attention to the plight of young female models and the practice of men and women studying them together.

Ryder was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 24 May 1884 and was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 29 April 1885. He suffered from depression and died on 30 April 1888 at age 67 after falling into the River Thames at the Vauxhall steamboat pier. there is a stained glass window to his memory in St Ann's Church in Portsmouth.

Family In June 1852 Ryder married Louisa Dawson; they had one son.