In memory of Lionel George Henry Ryden

Portrait of Lionel RydenLionel George Henry Ryden lived with his parents George and Shelagh at Markley Villa, Dundonald Road, Colwyn Bay, writes Adrian Hughes. George was Superintendent for the North Wales district of the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) until he resigned his position in 1945 and, after an intense period of training, started his own driving school.

Lionel attended school in Colwyn Bay and was a member of the St Paul’s Scout Troop. In October 1934, aged 11 years old, he was walking along Colwyn Bay promenade with a younger boy. The tide was coming in and large breakers were hitting the sea wall. Without warning the younger child climbed onto one of the groynes that jutted out into the sea and was almost immediately knocked into the water by a large wave.

Although he couldn’t swim, Lionel dashed into the cold water and managed to haul the smaller lad to the promenade and safety. He then wrapped the boy in his coat and took him home explaining what had happened to the lad’s parents. However, on returning to his own home he failed to give any explanation to his father to explain his soaking wet clothes and bedraggled appearance and, as was the convention of the time, his father demonstrated his displeasure by spanking Lionel with a slipper.

Later, the truth of what happened on that autumn afternoon came out and Lionel was awarded the Scout Silver Cross for gallantry by Reverend A J Costain, headmaster of Rydal School and Scout Commissioner for Denbighshire.

Lionel’s mother Shelagh was a nurse with the Colwyn Bay Volunteer Aid Detachment. In 1940, she was sent to Brighton to help at a hospital, a journey that took more than 15 hours because of chaos on the railway network. However, the journey was made more bearable as she was sharing a compartment with the Mayor of Brighton and with Flanagan and Allen, celebrated stars of stage and screen. She later commented: “Even they could not see anything funny in sitting for hours in a motionless train.”

Lionel joined the Royal Artillery during the Second World War and served with an anti-tank battery. In September 1944 his battery supported the 3rd battalion of the Parachute Regiment as part of the ill-fated Operation Market Garden, where tens of thousands of Allied parachutists landed behind enemy lines around the Dutch town of Arnhem with orders to hold the bridges that crossed the River Rhine allowing an invasion route into Germany.

Lance Bombardier Lionel Ryden was killed by German machine-gun fire on 20 September 1944 as he was driving a Jeep while towing the troop’s 6-pounder howitzer. He was 21 years old. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Groesbeek Memorial.

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