Ronnie Bryan

Ronald Thurston Bryan (30 July 1898–27 July 1970), known as Ronnie Bryan, was an English amateur cricketer and soldier who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club. He captained Kent for three months in 1937 and served in both World War I and World War II. He worked professionally for Lloyds Bank.

Bryan was born in Beckenham in Kent, the second son of Lindsay and Emily Bryan. His father was a solicitor. Bryan attended St Andrews' Preparatory School in Eastbourne before following his brother Jack on to Rugby School. He was in the Cricket XI from 1913 to 1915, initially as a bowler.

At the outbreak of World War I Bryan was still at school and was too young to enlist. In 1915, aged 17, he joined the Territorial Force, being awarded a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion, the Manchester Regiment, the same battalion his brother Jack was serving in and the brother's father had been a Lieutenant-colonel in. He was initially posted to a Provisional Battalion as he was too young to serve overseas. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1917 and, in January 1918, posted to the main complement of the battalion, now old enough to serve on the front line.

Bryan arrived on the Western Front in France in April 1918 and was attached to the Royal Sussex Regiment at Friville in the Somme sector. He saw action in the Hundred Days Offensive and was in action until the end of the war. After the Armistice he volunteered for service in the Army of Occupation on the Rhine and was stationed in Germany until the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 and was transferred to the Territorial Reserve in February 1921.