After graduating from Cambridge University in 1817, Edward Ryan was called to the
bar, practised on the Oxford circuit, and wrote legal treatises. Knighted for his
publications, he spent almost twenty years in India where he became chief judge, noted
for his philanthropy. Returning to England in 1843, he became a privy councillor and
later wrote a report calling for open competition for positions in the home civil
service. In 1848, as an officer of the privy council (cabinet), he exchanged notes
with Colonial Office permanent under-secretary
Herman Merivale concerning the grant of
Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company.