[4] The yacht Tai-Mo-Shan was resold and repaired numerous times and later reached a wider audience when she starred in the box office hit Mama Mia in 2008.

In 1940, he was promoted to commander of the Q-ship HMS Edgehill which was sunk on the 29th of June 1940, torpedoed three times by German submarine U51 in the Atlantic, 200 miles west of Ireland; Ryder was adrift for four days before rescue by an off course convoy.

[9]: 33  In early 1941, he went on to captain the Prince Philippe a cross-channel steamer converted to a Commando ship, which sank after a collision in the Firth of Clyde.

The official citation: The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Victoria Cross for daring and valour in the attack on the German Naval Base at St. Nazaire, to: Commander Robert Edward Dudley Ryder, Royal Navy.

Though the main object of the expedition had been accomplished in the beaching of Campbeltown, he remained on the spot conducting operations, evacuating men from Campbeltown and dealing with strong points and close range weapons while exposed to heavy fire for one hour and sixteen minutes, and did not withdraw till it was certain that his ship could be of no use in rescuing any of the Commando Troops who were still ashore.

That his Motor Gun Boat, now full of dead and wounded, should have survived and should have been able to withdraw through an intense barrage of close range fire was almost a miracle.

[12] Ryder took part in the Allied attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe, Seine-Inférieure on the northern coast of France on 19 August 1942.

[2] Ryder married Constance Hilaré Myfanwy Green-Wilkinson on 26 April 1941 at St Pater's Church, Cranbourne.

[13] Hilaré's father (the Reverend Lumley Green-Wilkinson) was the Vicar of the parish of Ascot, and at one time had been the chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Ryders had two children - Lisle (b 1943) who also joined the Royal Navy, before being ordained priest in the Church of England, and eventually becoming a Canon of Worcester Cathedral - and Susan (b 1944).