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Auction: 17001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 63

(x) A scarce Canada General Service Medal awarded to Private J. Ryder, Royal Canadian Rifles, late 16th (Bedfordshire) Regiment and afterwards King's Royal Rifle Corps

Canada General Service 1866-70, 2 clasps, Fenian Raid 1866, Fenian Raid 1870 (1426 Private J. Ryder, R.C. Rifles), officially impressed naming, extremely fine

One of 35 Medals with 2 clasps to the Royal Canadian Rifles.

John Ryder was born at Newmarket, Co. Clare, Ireland on 26 July 1836 and enlisted in the 16th (Bedfordshire) Regiment in January 1852. Posted to the 1st Battalion in Canada in the summer of 1854, he returned to England in May 1857 in the rank of Corporal. Thereafter his time with the 1st/16th appears to have been an unhappy one, including the loss of his stripes and periods of confinement. The Battalion having returned to Canada in the early 1860s, he was discharged in August 1864.

Two months later he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Rifles (R.C.R.) at Kingston. Otherwise known as the 'Bullfrogs', owing to their green facings, the R.C.R's duties included rounding up British deserters. Ryder was subsequently present in the Fenian Raid operations of 1866 and 1870 (Medal & 2 clasps).

In June of the latter year he transferred to the 1st/60th Royal Rifles, in which unit he regained but lost his stripes for neglect of duty. He was discharged to a pension at Halifax, Nova Scotia in March 1873, when he, his wife and four children were granted travel allowances to Toronto; sold with a file of copied research.




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Sold for
£400