Herbert Edward Ryle

Herbert Edward Ryle (25 May 1856 – 20 August 1925) was a British writer, Old Testament scholar and successively the Bishop of Exeter, the Bishop of Winchester and the Dean of Westminster.

Ryle was born in London, on 25 May 1856, son of the first Bishop of Liverpool.

He attends King's College, Cambridge, as a classical scholar, and there he won every distinction open at Cambridge to students of theology, including a first class in the theological Tripos.

During his life, Ryle became a teacher and also a Principal  in different colleges; throughout his career he published a number of books connected with his academic interests (Philosophy, Holy scriptures).

As concern his career as a clergy man he was ordained deacon in 1882, priest in 1883, honorary Chaplain to Queen Victoria in 1896, in 1898 a Chaplain-in Ordinary to Her Majesty, in December 1900 Ryle was selected Bishop of Exeter.

In December 1910 Ryle was appointed Dean of Westminster. He was installed in Westminster Abbey at a time when the building was being prepared for the coronation of King George V.

In 1920 the Reverend David Railton wrote to Ryle proposing that an unidentified British soldier from the battlefields in France be buried with due ceremony in Westminster Abbey "amongst the kings" to represent the many hundreds of thousands of Empire dead. The idea was strongly supported by Ryle and the then Prime Minister Lloyd George. The inscription on the tomb was composed by Ryle.

Ryle always had hearth trouble and in 1925 died. He was buried on 25 August in Westminster Abbey in a spot close to the tomb of The Unknown Warrior.