Page 163 - They Also Served

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Lisle Ryder 1922.
The son of the surveyor-general, Lisle Charles Dudley Ryder was born in India in 1902. Educated at Cheltenham College, he was commissioned into the Royal Norfolk Regiment in 1922. After service as a subaltern, he served with the West African Frontier Force from 1927 to 1931 before returning to his regiment as adjutant.
Between 1934 and 1937, he was seconded to the British Graham Land Expedition to the Antarctic. Employed as second mate of the 130-ton, three-masted schooner Penola, his younger brother Robert, a Royal Navy officer and future VC winner, was captain. Becoming an exceptionally skilled shipwright, Lisle not only kept the schooner in good working order throughout the arduous expedition but also used his workshop to make and repair items for the scientists on land as they explored the southern continent. Lisle Ryder’s nickname of ‘sailor’ was coined during the expedition. Returning in 1938, he was awarded the rare Polar Medal, with its distinctive white ribbon, and posted to the 1st Battalion in India. Married that year, his only son, Ralston, was born in June 1939.
Ryder was promoted to major in August 1939 and returned to the UK as the commander of C Company with the 2nd Battalion, which deployed as part of the BEF. In late May 1940, the BEF was in general retreat, with the 2nd Norfolks tasked with delaying the German advance to cover the evacuation at Dunkirk. An attack by the SS-Totenkopf Division resulted in over 600 German casualties before the enemy regrouped and launched another attack on C Company, with elements of HQ Company which had fallen back to the village of Le Paradis. The Norfolks, with the 1st Royal Scots on their flank, held out for most of the day until their ammunition was exhausted.
Under a white flag, Ryder led 99 men from the village, unknowingly surrendering to the SS company that had been fighting the Scots, not the one directly engaged with his men. The Norfolks, many of whom were wounded, were disarmed and marched to a barn where SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Knöchlein ordered his men to machine-gun
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