Crimea, Colonel Commissariat and Transport

[dante]

Deputy Commissary-general (Colonel) Ashley Cowper Ryland
Crimea Medal (missing clasp Sebastopol)
Ashley Cowper Ryland was born in Peckham in 1835 and enlisted in the Army on the 1st September 1855 with the Commissariat and Transport Staff and served in the Crimea, including the siege and fall of Sebastopol (Medal with Clasp, and Turkish Medal).
the Commissariat and Transport Staff was in-charge of the Provision of food, forage and fuel for the army it infamously struggled to deal with the complexities of supplying the Army during Crimean War; in December 1854 control of the military functions of the Commissariat were transferred to the War Office. 
The Commissariat remained a uniformed civilian service until 1869 and those still serving were given military ranks. 
After the Crimea, Colonel Ryland served in Australia and Tasmania, where the Commissariat Department had responsibility for the provisions of military forces, the few remaining convicts, and lunatics.
He married Jessy Louisa Ewing in 1860 and in 1870 was posted to Ceylon until the 1880s when was then sent to Egypt until he Retired 1888.
Returning to the UK he Died in 1913 in Upper Norwood, South London