feature Reluctant hero found peace in Norfolk village He was one of the greatest naval heroes of the second world war, but Robert Ryder fought shy of publicity before finding contentment in the peaceful seclusion of a Norfolk home by the shores of the Wash, writes Steve Snelling. s naval heroes go, Robert ‘Red’ Ryder was a man cast in the classic mould. Brave almost beyond belief, he was as resolute as he was reserved and relentlesslyA self-effacing. Devotion to duty was not so much an aspiration as a way of life. Master and hound: ‘Red’ Ryder VC in peaceful retirement at Wolferton with one of his beloved springers. His adventures in war and peace read like a real-life ripping yarn. From steering a ketch on a year-long voyage half way I didn’t mean to…” Indeed, he proved himself remarkably round the world to captaining a tired old For the rest of his life he doggedly shied adept in avoiding the doldrums of routine schooner through three hazardous years away from unwanted attention, even to service life by embarking on a series of of Antarctic exploration and leading one the point of doing his level best to write adventures which marked him out as a of the most audacious raids of the second For the himself out of the story of the raid he’d mariner of exceptional skills. world war, his exploits surpassed even the planned and led with such distinction. The first of these came seven years after most outrageous of fictional escapades. Commenting on his post-war account, joining the navy and just six years after In the course of two amazing years, he rest of his a reviewer described it as “almost being awarded the King’s Dirk as the survived, by some miracle, being cast irritatingly self-effacing”, adding: “the outstanding cadet of the year. It involved adrift for four lonely days in the Atlantic life he reader is left to fill in from his own building and sailing the yacht Tai-Mo- and a seemingly suicidal feat of arms that imagination much that Commander Ryder Shan from Hong Kong to England, an epic proved his finest hour before going on to doggedly could much better have supplied”. voyage of some 17,000 miles. assist James Bond creator Ian Fleming Though not altogether uncommon As a veteran of Fastnet races with a form a crack naval intelligence unit. Family man: ‘Red’ Ryder at the height of shied among men of his age and background, reputation as a first class navigator, Ryder As one of my boyhood heroes, he his fame during the war with his wife his modesty was as extreme as his social took command of the five-strong crew of seemed to me a latter-day Hornblower Hilaré and son Lisle. ineptitude was excruciating. naval officers. whose unwavering courage in the face away from Never one for small talk, particularly In charting their incident-filled journey of overwhelming odds during the 1942 Launcelot Fleming, a one-time bishop of among strangers, he was described as the which featured a star-sprinkled stopover raid on St Nazaire was a memorable Norwich who was a close friend of Ryder’s unwanted sort of party guest who would “hide in the in Hollywood, Hopton gives the lie to highlight of my comic-reading days. With from their time spent in Antarctica, corner”. speculation that the cruise was a cover for his granite-jawed good looks and steely described him as “a supremely humble attention, Hopton prefers to think of him as having a clandestine spying expedition around determination, ‘Red’ Ryder seemed the man” and an intensely “private one”. had a “public and a private persona”. “He the Japanese Kurile Islands. “The whiff stirring stuff of legend, a genuine, real- Hopton goes further. “He absolutely even to certainly doesn’t come across as someone of espionage adds a dash of glamour to life superman. detested playing the role of hero,” he says. who was the life and soul of the party, the voyage,” he writes, “but, sadly, it is not A half century on, I am aware of just how “That’s where the title of the book came the point but, privately, by all accounts, he was borne out by the facts.” embarrassed he would have felt at such from. A Reluctant Hero is what he was. very jolly, devoted to practical jokes, loved Ever restless for more adventure, Ryder a one-dimensional impression. Instead, “Not in the sense of being reluctant to his family and his spaniels and had a was already plotting his next challenge thanks to Richard Hopton’s beguiling and do his duty. Quite the reverse. He was of doing twinkling sense of fun.” even before the Tai-Mo-Shan reached revealing new biography, I am presented always willing to put his life on the line. Split personality or not, there is no Dartmouth in May, 1934, almost a year to with an altogether richer portrait in He simply couldn’t bear all the trappings his level question that any social awkwardness was the day after leaving Kowloon harbour. which one curious image stands out in its that came with being a national hero, in stark contrast to his myriad sea-going During a delay in Bermuda, he comical incongruity. which is what he became following the best to accomplishments. Sailing, above almost discovered the Admiralty was looking “for It is of the great naval hero in reticent raid on St Nazaire.” all things, was his great love and about one lieutenant capable of commanding & retirement in Norfolk, beating a hasty Typical of his attempts to avoid publicity write which he wrote with a rare passion. navigating a 112ft topsail schooner for a retreat from Sunday worship at Wolferton was his exit from Buckingham Palace Years later, he recalled an early trip three-year voyage to the Antarctic”. Church for fear of being forced to indulge following his Victoria Cross investiture. aboard his brother Lisle’s converted “He was desperate to go,” says Hopton. in “churchyard chit-chat”. In an effort to outwit journalists gathered himself fishing smack where they experienced “Not least because the alternative was That none of this was an affectation outside, he slipped out via a side-door, “just about everything – strong winds, either to leave the navy, which given or a display of false modesty is amply sparking a comic-opera chase through out of the fog and calms” and which left “a deep and the economic climate, was not a great demonstrated in Hopton’s compelling central London involving 20 members exciting impression on my young mind”. prospect, or go back to ordinary service study that explores the complex and, at of his own family and an assorted press story It was, what Hopton calls, “an epiphany” which he didn’t much fancy. times, contradictory nature of a man who, pack. that would lead him to break with family “What this period showed was his for much of his life, displayed every bit Apologising to his wife, Hilaré, he made tradition by choosing a career not in the steeliness, his determination to ensure as much determination in avoiding the a fist of explaining his actions: “I am army, as his father and brother had done, that come hell or high water he would be public spotlight as he did in ensuring the sorry I couldn’t revel & wallow in the but in the Royal Navy. appointed to the Penola.” destruction of one of the most heavily proceedings etc as perhaps my Mother It was a decision he would never regret, Helped by some “judicious string- defended dry docks in enemy-occupied would have liked, but I do dislike that sort though life in the peacetime navy was pulling”, Ryder succeeded in joining Europe. of thing. I hope I didn’t appear very surly. little to his taste. the John Rymill-led British Graham 6 EDP Weekend n January 28, 2012 Master and hound: ‘Red’ Ryder VC in peaceful retirement at Wolferton with one of his beloved springers. Land Expedition venturing into largely that nothing would be passing his way. Family group (top): The action served as a timely tonic and During that time, Ryder served as unexplored ice packs of western “Yet, such was his strength of character, Robert Ryder, the award of Ryder’s VC was little more churchwarden for 12 years and developed Antarctica. What followed was, Hopton he clung on and, by a great stroke of good seated second than a richly merited formality. However, an unexpected devotion to a pair of believes, a daunting test of navigation fortune, he was found and picked up by a from the right, with distinction brought with it a lifelong springers, which he trained as gun dogs. and seamanship that Ryder considered ship from what turned out to be the last his parents and burden. As a neighbour to the Royal Family, the “his greatest achievement”. convoy going that way.” siblings around the Being feted and treated as “public Ryders dined with the Queen and Prince “The thing was they had no money,” Rescue was tainted by the loss of so many time he joined the property” held no appeal whatsoever, Philip and, on occasion, ‘Red’ was invited says Hopton. “Scott’s expedition 20-odd of his crew and the news his brother Lisle, Royal Navy. His leading his wife to observe, plaintively, to join shooting parties, although he was years earlier had a budget of £100,000. with whom he had shared so many sailing older brother Lisle, “he gets sick of people coming up and predictably modest of his own record.