A MILLIONAIRE SOLDIER.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1066, 12 July 1917, Page 4

A MILLIONAIRE SOLDIER.

SACRIFICE FOR SERVICE. Early in the war "The Times" aroused a good deal of curiosity when it stated that a young man of 22 who j had recently come into £2,000,00 C had i just settled his affairs and had started | | for the front, as a good patriot should. IWe now have the sequel. On April Id Captain Dennis Smith-Ryland, of the Yeomanry, was reported to have died "of wounds. He was the elder sou of the late Mr Charles Alston Smith, of Barford Hill, Warwick, and he came of age lin 1912. The estate came into the family through romantic circumstances. It was left to Mr C. A. Smith by the late Miss Ryland, who had been greatly attached to his father, and had taken a great interest in the son. The latter had been brought up as a land agent and surveyor in Birmingham. The property consisted mainly of building lands and ground rents in Birmingham and the estate at Barford Hill. Miss Ryland had been a munificent benefactress to Birmingham, and died in January, 1889. She had made a secret of the heir, or heirs, to whom she would leave her great wealth, and the secret had been well kept. After the funeral, on February 1, the secret was disclosed. Various legacies to relatives, friends, and charities had l>ceu left, amounting to n total of over £300,000; the residue of the estate, over £300,000, and the really being left to Mr ('. A. Smith in settlement, with remainder to heirs, made in seniority. At date the total value of the Ryland estate was estimated at £2,000.000 and upwards; but since her death the rise in the vf hie of land in Birmingham and the growth of building in the suburbs must have increased the value of the property enormously. Mr Smith gave a park to Birmingham, and made other generous gifts. His son, Captain Dennis SmithRyland, came into his vast property in H)M. He joined the. Yeomanry, ami was attached for a time to a Hussar regiment. With his Yeomanry regiment he went to Gallipoli, and also rau lighting in Egypt and in the Sinai Peninsula. The estate now passes to his brother, Mr Charles Ivor SmithRyland, aii Etonian, who is serving in the Coldstream Guards.