Ryley George W.

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George W. Ryley is honored on the following 1 monument(s) in our database:

26th Division Tablets of the Fallen (WW1)

Name:

George W. Ryley

Rank:

First Lieutenant

Serial Number:

Unit:

102nd Infantry Regiment, 26th Division

Date of Death:

1918-07-20

State:

Massachusetts

Cemetery:

West Parish Garden Cemetery, Massachusetts

Plot:

Row:

Grave:

Decoration:

Comments:

George William Ryley of Lawrence, MA, was a graduate of Harvard University, Class 1910; Harvard R.O.T.C.; Admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1913. He worked initially in a charitable capacity as a public attorney in the Boston Legal Aid Society. He was an accomplished pianist and though of small stature, he excelled in sports at Harvard. He was quick witted and outspoken.

He abhorred the thought of war and frequently said he did not expect to come out alive. On May 17, 1917, he wrote in his office diary, "Finis. Left for the Army. God help us."

As the World War loomed overseas George Ryley was enrolled in the second graduating class, Company 5, 17th Provisional Training Regiment, Reserve Officer's Training School at Plattsburg, New York. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the US Army Reserve and arrived unassigned in France January 1918 and trained at the officer's school at Chatillon-sur-Seine until assigned to Company L, 102nd US Infantry before April of 1918.

On July 20, 1918, during a strong rearguard action by the German retreat Company L was to advance through shelling and machine gun fire from their shallow trench positions on the dangerously exposed divisional right flank near Triangle Farm, located south of the town of Bouresches, and clear a strongly defended wooded knoll 1000 yards to their front in Bois de Bouresches. In between were fields of wheat and crossing in between the company and their objective lay a road and a railroad bed together in a shallow ravine. The men formed and crossed the first wheat field and lay behind the railway embankment. Lieutenant Ryley's commanding officer in Co. L, 1st Lt. Henry A. Riecke, was severely wounded in both legs in the initial wave of attack by machine gun fire. Lieutenant Riecke in agony passed his command to Lieutenant Ryley who stood to lead his men from the ravine only to be struck and killed by a bullet to the head.

Lieutenant Ryley was first buried at Belleau Wood Cemetery and was later repatriated to West Parish Garden Cemetery in Andover, Massachusetts where he was re-interred Sept. 8, 1921, Section O, Lot 6.

[George W. Ryley, HUD 3567.219.2 (Photograph No. 314), Harvard University Archives]