Alfred Ryder (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Phillipps Ryder KCB (27 June 1820 – 30 April 1888) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he undertook the role of transporting Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela, the Portuguese ambassador, back home to Lisbon and then delivering the Percy Doyle, the British ambassador to the Republic of Mexico, to Mexico City. He then led a naval brigade dispatched to Nicaragua to deal with the unlawful detention of two British subjects. He pursued the Nicaraguan commander, a Colonel Salas, for 30 miles up the San Juan River and captured the fort at Serapique.

Ryder became commanding officer of the frigate HMS Dauntless in which he saw action in the Black Sea and then took part in the Battle of Kinburn during the Crimean War. He went on to be Controller of the Coastguard, Commander-in-Chief, China Station and then Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. In retirement he was an active member of the Church of England Purity Society. He suffered from depression and died after falling into the River Thames at the Vauxhall steamboat pier.