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"We Were Not Shadows" by Colonel E.P.J. Ryan, O.B.E typed manuscript, C0549, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries
The donor is unknown.
Processing completed by Meghan Glasbrenner in March 2026. Finding aid completed by Meghan Glasbrenner in April 2026.
Edward Patrick John Ryan was a British Indian Army career soldier and intelligence officer. In 1943, Colonel Ryan held the position of Deputy Director Military Intelligence, Paiforce, under the direction of General Arthur Selby, and was in charge of Prime Minster Winston Churchill's security arrangements for his visit to Tehran, Iran to participate in the meeting known as The Tehran Conference. During World War II (WWII), Colonel Ryan was awarded both Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) and the U.S. Legion of Merit. In 1949, he was promoted to the substantive rank of Major and granted the honorary rank of Full Colonel in the Intelligence Corps. While Ryan appears to have entered civilian life soon after the end of WWII, becoming the Cairo-based representative of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors in late 1945, he officially retired as an Intelligence Corps. reserve officer in 1956.
The Tehran Conference, code-named "Eureka" during the planning stages, was the first in-person meeting between the "Big Three" leaders of the Allied Powers during WWII: U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The meeting took place in Tehran, Iran between November 28 – December 1, 1943. The main focus of the meeting was coordination of military strategy against Germany and Japan, particularly the opening of a "second front" in western Europe, the launch of "Operation Overlord" by British and American forces into Northern France (which was subsequently executed in May 1944), and agreement that the Soviet Union would declare war against Japan following the Allied victory over Germany (with concessions from Roosevelt regarding Soviet ownership of islands and ports that would be finalized at the Yalta Conference in 1945). The meeting also saw discussions of long-range political planning for the post WWII era, including revision of Poland's eastern border (which was ratified at the Potsdam Conference in 1945), negotiations about the status of the Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in regard to the Soviet Union, the composition of the future United Nations, the possible postwar partition of Germany, and a declaration guaranteeing the postwar independence and territorial integrity of the conference's host country of Iran.
Typed manuscript written by Colonel E.P.J. Ryan, O.B.E, Persia and Iraq Command, 1943-1945 recounting the security arrangements for the Big Three, particularly British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, at the Tehran Conference from November 28 – December 1, 1943. The manuscript is contained in an enclosure, with title and author information typed on the front cover and on the first interior page. The inside of the front cover contains handwritten information likely pertaining to previous owners of the manuscript. The manuscript is divided into 17 chapters (written using Roman numerals) and one Prologue, written in first-person, and includes 101 numbered pages, with an additional three unnumbered pages containing pasted in actual black and white photographs of locations, people, and events related to the Tehran Conference, with typed captions under each photograph. A note at the front of the manuscript indicates that these photographs are "from the Imperial War Museum" in London, England. Prologue, Chapter, and photograph locations are listed in a Table of Contents at the beginning of the manuscript, with photographs being listed under the heading "Illustrations."
Date information is based on indication in the manuscript itself that writing was started after Colonel Ryan's 1955 return visit to Tehran and indication in the final chapter that Winston Churchill (1874-1965) is still alive at time of its completion.
The Special Collections Research Center holds other collections related to World War II, including Jerome Lawlor World War II scrapbook and Daniel Monson World War II aviation collection.
This is a single item collection.
AbeBooks. n.d. "We Were Not Shadows. Persia and Iraq Command, 1943-1945. by TEHRAN CONFERENCE - RYAN, E. P. J. | Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB." Accessed April 1, 2026. https://www.abebooks.co.uk/first-edition/Shadows-Persia-Iraq-Command-1943-1945-TEHRAN/31951341128/bd.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. n.d. "Tehran Conference." Britannica. Accessed April 1, 2026. https://www.britannica.com/event/Tehran-Conference.
Imperial War Museums. n.d. "The Big Three and the Tehran Conference." Accessed April 1, 2026. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-big-three-and-the-tehran-conference.
Office of the Historian. n.d. "Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations." Accessed April 1, 2026. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/tehran-conf.
The Gazette. 2024. "What Is the Difference between a CBE, OBE, MBE and a Knighthood?" January 4. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/awards-and-accreditation/content/103372.