Lieutenant-Commander Richard John Hammersley Ryan, GC (23 July 1903 – 21 September 1940) was a Royal Navy officer who was posthumously awarded the George Cross along with Chief Petty Officer Reginald Vincent Ellingworth for the "great gallantry and undaunted devotion to duty" they displayed while attempting to defuse a mine which had fallen on Dagenham in Essex on 21 September 1940.
[3] Notice of the award appeared in the London Gazette of 20 December 1940:[4][5] Chief Petty Officer Reginald Vincent Ellingworth worked as an assistant to Lieutenant Commander R. J. H. Ryan in rendering safe magnetic mines.
The amount that the clock fuse had already run could never be known, and once it had re-started the time to escape could not be more than a few seconds.
At Dagenham Essex the two officers tackled such a mine hanging by a parachute in a warehouse and were both killed by its explosion.
Chief Petty Officer Ellingworth had previously been commended by the Captain of H.M.S VERNON for his work on mine disposal.