Thomás O'Ryan y Vázquez

Thomás O'Ryan y Vázquez (Madrid 1821 - 1902) was a Spanish military Lieutenant General, Minister of War, and Professor at the Military School of Engineers (Academia de Ingenieros Militares) in Guadalajara, Castile and León, Spain, founded in Alcalá de Henares, in 1803, by Spanish Basque General José de Urrutia , (1739 - 1803), a former associated General of Prince Grigory Potemkin in the Russian Empire, under Catherine II. Thomas O´Ryan was of Irish descent.

Military career

Spanish Basque General José de Urrutia, (1739-1803), a general associated to Grigory Potemkin in the Russian Empire of Catherine II . Painted by Francisco de Goya, Madrid, Museo del Prado, Spain. First director, 1803, of the Spanish Military Engineers School, where Spanish General Thomas O´Ryan y Vazquez was trained in the 1830´s

O´Ryan took part in the Spanish Revolution in 1848, graduating earlier, around 1842. He also fought in Cuba, aged around 30, participating in the defeat of the second attempt at maritime invasion by the Venezuelan filibuster Narciso López, (1797 - executed 1851), who had been helped with exiles, mercenaries and money by United States Governor John A. Quitman of Mississippi, (1797 - 1858), former Senator John Henderson of Mississippi, (1797 - 1857) and the editor of the New Orleans Delta, Laurence Sigur, contravening the Spain - USA neutrality conventions operative since 1818. Govermor Quitman, Senator Henderson and others were tried by a tribunal in the United States but were finally acquitted.

Crimean War

O´Ryan was a military attaché in 1855, as a Lieutenant Colonel, aged 34, and was invited by the General Headquarters of the French - English Army at the Crimean War against Russia to write an account of the war. He did this together with his assistant Lieutenant of the Military Engineers Corp, Andres Villalon Hechebarria, deceased in 1885 as a Brigadier of the Spanish Army, who participated in military campaigns in Africa, Mexico and the Philippine Islands. They wrote a most interesting account of the Crimean War in 3 volumes, namely: Memorias sobre el viaje militar a La Crimea, presentada por los oficiales del Cuerpo de Ingenieros nombrados en 1855 para seguir y estudiar las operaciones de la Guerra entre Rusia y las potencias occidentales de Francia e Inglaterra auxiliando a la Turquía. Madrid, Imprenta Memorial Engineers (Reports on the military journey to the Crimea, by officers of the Corps of Engineers appointed in 1855 to monitor and study the operations of the War between Russia and the Western powers France and England, in support of Turkey.).

Further career

In 1859 he was commissioned as a Colonel to witness the Italian War.

He was a Governor of Melilla, (1864 - 1866) He was a personal aide of King Alfonso XII of Spain, (1857 - King under a coup détat in 1875 - 1885), Minister of War in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Praxedes Mateo Sagasta and General Director of the Infantry Corps.

Bibliography

O´Ryan wrote in Spanish, Guerra de Oriente (1854 a 1856). Conferencias dadas en el Centro del Ejército y de la Armada by General Don Tomás O´Ryan y Vázquez (East War (1854 to 1856). Lectures given to the Army and Navy.). Madrid, Imprenta Memorial Engineers (1886).

He published in 1856, in vol. 11, of the Imprenta Memorial Engineers, (Madrid), a 360 pages treatise with 36 deployable designs, a translation of the German work by the Austrian Julius von Wurmb Tratado de Arquitectura Militar (Treatise on Military Architecture).

• Croquis de la Batalla de Treviño : librada el día 7 de Julio de 1875 siendo General en Jefe el E.S. Teniente General D. Genaro de Quesada y Mathews y Jefe de E.M.G. el E.S. Mariscal de Campo D. Tomás O'Ryan y Vazquez ; Dibujado y litografiado por Rodriguez-Tejero y Argüelles y grabado por Alfaro, oficiales dibujantes de la Sección topográfica de E.M.G.

Treviño (Burgos) (Condado). Mapas militares. 1875 : http://realbiblioteca.patrimonionacional.es/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=82339.

• Croquis de la Batalla de Treviño librada el 7 de Julio de 1875 siendo General en Jefe el E. S. Teniente General D. Genaro de Quesada y Mathews y Jefe de E[stado] M[ayor] G[eneral] el Mariscal de Campo D. Tomás O'Ryan y Vázquez [Material cartográfico] / Dibujado y litografiado por Rodríguez-Tejero y Argüelles y grabado por Alfaro, oficiales dibujantes de la Sección topográfica del E[stado] M[ayor] G[eneral] ; Vº Bº Victoriano de la Torre (rúbrica)

http://bibliotecadigital.rah.es/dgbrah/i18n/consulta/registro.cmd?id=28983.

• Estudios sobre las casamatas para artilleria. Madrid 1862, (Google eBook). Emilio Bernaldez, Leopoldo Scheidnagel, Mariano Garcia y Garcia, Tomas O-Ryan, Pedro de Eguia, Angel Rodriguez-Arroquia, Reg. Hispaniae Isabella II. Imprenta del Memorial de Ingenieros, (1862).

http://books.google.es/books/about/Estudios_sobre_las_Casamatas_para_Artill.html?id=umRTAAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y

• Author: Rüstow, Wilhelm, Guerra de Italia en el año 1859, considerada política y militarmente / Por W. Ruestow. Traducción... por el Brigadier D. Tomas O-Ryan y Vazquez. Iimpr. Memorisl de Ingenieros.Maps dated 1864 and 1865.

http://realbiblioteca.patrimonionacional.es/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=59033

In the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, a wide body of correspondence by Tomás O´Ryan y Vazquez, circa 1870 1871, has been digitalized in the first decade of the XXI Century with forcibly exiled Queen Isabel II of Spain as he was Personal Tutor of her son King Alfonso XII of Spain, born 1857, deceased at the age of 28 and restored at the age of 17 in the Spanish Throne by military force after 1874. He was thus much honoured then later by his former thankful if rather meagre with health pupil.

He was Director General de la Guardia Civil from 13–12–1888 till 13–11–1890 promoted by the young Dowager Queen Maria Christina of Austria, deceased 1929: http://archivosguardiacivil.zxq.net/Archivos3/DirectoresGenerales.html

He wrote some treatises on recent European Strategic military engineering, translating them from English, German and French.

Honours

He received the "Legion d'Honneur" medal in France, the Portuguese medal of the "Order of the Concepcion de Villaviciosa", the medal of "San Maurizio e San Lazaro" in Italy and the "Order of the Medjidie" from Turkey.

References

• Sanz Guitian, Pablo (1995) Viajeros españoles en Rusia. Madrid: Compañia Literaria ISBN 84-8213-018-8. 473 pages, in Spanish.
• I Coloquio Internacional “Los Extranjeros en la España Moderna”, Málaga 2003, Tomo II, pp. 565 - 571. ISBN: 84-688-2633-2. 565 IRISH STUDENTS AND MERCHANTS IN SEVILLE,

1598-1798 Martin Murphy. dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/831264.pdf