Edward Ryan (barrister)

[1] It was Herschel's sharing of his scientific interests and enthusiasms that encouraged Ryan to join the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820.

[2] He practised on the Oxford Circuit and published a volume of law reports jointly with William Oldnall Russell titled Crown cases reserved for consideration; and decided by the Twelve judges of England, from the year 1799 to the year 1824[3] before being appointed a puisne judge in the Calcutta supreme court in Bengal, then an English colony (see: Company Rule in India, 1757–1857: Justice system), an appointment which carried the customary knighthood.

However, he would complete another book, this time with William Moody, titled Reports of cases determined at Nisi Prius, in the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas: and on the Oxford and Western circuits from the sittings after Michaelmas term, 4 Geo.

[2] Ryan resigned as Chief Justice and returned to England in January 1843 with the intention of acting as assessor to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on appeals from the Indian courts.

[2] The Northcote–Trevelyan Report in 1854 had characterised the British Civil Service as riddled with cronyism and hampered by the inefficiencies of patronage.

Ryan became the inaugural First Civil Service Commissioner in 1855 with the task of implementing the reforms, and immediately faced the establishment backlash.

However, Ryan was both intelligent and tactful and managed to supervise the trialling, evaluation and gradual introduction of universal tests by 1870.