Gerald Herbert Ryan, a proud Irishman, signed his attestation papers “Gearld,” the Irish pronunciation of his name. “Gerald was passed on a fierce pride [from his father],” said great nephew Kevin Gerald Ryan.

Kevin thinks Ryan enlisted late in the war in May 1918 because he was influenced or controlled for so long by his father who strongly hated the British and viewed the war as “Britain’s War.”

“I believe his father would have been trying to influence him to not join up because of the hatred,” said Kevin.

He suspects Ryan’s father, born in Canada, was still angry at the British for not helping Ireland during the Great Famine of 1845, which killed Ryan’s grandmother and forced his grandfather to leave his native land. “There was quite a bit of resentment that was passed on through the next generations.”

Ryan served as an ambulance driver for the Canadian Field Ambulance in the 75th Depot Battery, which was responsible for moving the wounded from the front lines to medical centres.

“When he returned from his active duty he was not the same man,” said Kevin. “Life after the war was not a great life. He was never able to adjust from what I understand and was never able to keep a job, he also [started] using alcohol and never moved from his parents home.”

Ryan was an emotional casualty of war. “His life never amounted to anything and [he] was never really a well man emotionally after the war.”

Do you have an ancestor who served in the Great War? Submit their story and it could be included on this Great War Album website.