John Sheffield Gilbert Ryley was born in Marylebone, London on 16 Aug 1808. He was the son of John Ryley JP DL and Charlotte Catherine Cox. He was educated at Harrow and after cadet training arrived in India on 24 June 1826, posted to the 2nd Bengal Light Cavalry in September. He was appointed adjutant on 22 Mar 1834 and promoted to lieutenant on 4 Sep 1835. He served in the First Afghan War but when the 2nd BLC was disbanded in 1841 he was initially transferred to the 11th, but on 14 Dec 1842 went to the 5th BLC where he remained until retirement. He was Station Staff Officer at Landour from 11 Oct 1844 to 1848, and fought at Sobraon and Ramnuggur in the Sikh Wars. He was promoted to Captain on 21 Aug 1849 and made brevet Major on 20 June 1854. He retired in December that year and in 1855 was made Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel.
Lieutenant John Ryley was married to Marianne Christian Walker Watkins in Delhi on 20 Sep 1838. She was related to James Skinner who raised the famous Irregular Cavalry regiment. They had three children, two daughters and a son. The Mechanics Magazine 1 Dec 1865 wrote a piece on Colonel Ryley’s experiments with gunpowder. He improved on the efforts of a scientist named Mr Gale to find a way of making gunpowder safe to store, by rendering it non-explosive, then reversing the process to reactivate it again. He retired to Britain and lived at first in Edinburgh, then at Seaview, Uphill, Weston-super-Mare, where he died on 31 May 1891. His grave was recently discovered by John Hurcombe in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul, Bleadon and written about by Penny Robinson. https://www.bleadonparishcouncil.co.uk/content/554ce68b167f33.48401155.pdf
