Jim "Buck" Ryan

Hi there,

I'm looking for information about my grandad (actually my great-grandad) who we lost earlier this week. We know he was in the 44 commando but have just found out he was also in the 40 and 42 previous to that as well.

He did tell us that helped about his age so he could get in at aged 17 which would have been 1937.

He served in Burma and also went on some kind of mission in France during WW2 but he never specified any kind of information apart from that.

His name isn't on any list I have found but I'm hoping someone would be able to read this and see if they could shed any light??

Thank you so much for reading

I am sorry to hear of the passing of your great grandfather. Please accept my sincere condolences. Unfortunately I do not have any information to help you from our website archive.

There was a previous post on our forum from someone who posted photos here http://forum.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/3709.page

Did your great grandfather join the Royal Marines Association ? It may be worth contacting them to advise them of his passing and see if there records can help.

Pete

Hi Pete,

Thank you for the advice. I will contact them and see if they can help.

Thanks again

Do the family have anything such as a Commando Service Certificate, service record, document, testimonial, letter, etc that mentions any of his service in a particular Commando unit ?

My grandma has what she thinks are his discharge papers (it's her dad so she was only young when he left) so once I get that from her I should have more info

Hi
I am pretty sure my dad, Lt Norman Best, served with your great grandfather, in Burma. i know he corresponded with a Buck Ryan for many years and they exchanged christmas cards. As far as I can remember the Buck Ryan my dad knew moved to Florida, I think, after the war. He did mention him several times. Was he also a bit of an artist? I have previously posted photographs and some documents on the gallery and if you type in Lt F.N.Best in Burma they should come up. I will do a bit more digging and see if I can come up with something as I have a large ox of documents and photos that I've borrowed from my mum. Sadly dad died in 1986.
Bill Best

Hi Bill,

I'm not sure if we have the same person. My grandad has always been in Manchester (UK) and has never lived in the US. They called him Buck apparently because of his teeth (I'll leave that to thinking the obvious!!) his real name was James but everyone knew him as Jim.

Although he was part of the Burma campaign as that was the majority of what he talked about when he used to reminisce. There was also something he went over to France for as well but he never spoke a lot about that just that he had to go over and retrieve someone to bring them back home?