Oval photographic miniature, probably on vellum, hand-tinted with watercolour, in an oval gilt metal suspension locket. It has a blue leather case lined with blue velvet, with an integral stand. The sitter is shown bust-length turned slightly to his right against a light blue stippled background. He has light brown hair and brown/ green eyes and is shown in 1891-pattern lieutenant's full-dress uniform.

Rymer, born in Eltham, Kent, on 6 October 1873, was eldest son of a leather merchant, Edward Rymer (1843 - 93) and his wife, Mary Angelica Andoe (b. 1842/3, m. 1865, d. 1923). His second given name was that of her brother (possibly his godfather as well as uncle) later Admiral Sir Hilary Gustavus Andoe (1841-1905). The Rymers had a number of daughters and two younger sons; the elderof these, John Henry (b. 1876), became an army officer, fought in the Boer War and was killed in 1915 when a captain in the 11th Manchester Regiment ('The Times', 26 Aug.). John was educated at the Beaumont School, Windsor, so Edward may also have been there before joining the Navy in 1887. In February 1889, as a naval cadet, he was posted to the Bellerophon and after service as a midshipman was commissioned lieutenant on 1 October 1895. On 21 May 1896 he was posted to the training ship Northampton as 'additional' for her tender, the corvette Curacao, in which he was fourth lieutenant. From 15 January 1899 he was 'lieutenant & commander' of the torpedo-boat destroyer HMS Quail as tender to the 1st-class cruiser Crescent on the West Indies and North American Station, and from August 1901 was first lieutenant of the boys' training ship St Vincent at home. On 19 February 1904, after doing the gunnery course in HMS Excellent at Portsmouth, he became first lieutenant of the battleship Glory (Captain Walter Stopford), Vice-Admiral Sir Gerard Noel's flagship on the China Station, until promoted to commander on 30 June 1906.

Beginning in 1906 (and attached to HMS President in London from July 1907 for Admiralty special duties) he was one of a committee appointed to inquire into canteen and victualling arrangements in the fleet. Their report was issued by Parliament in September 1907, after which Rymer became Admiralty liaison officer charged with visiting the naval ports and helping introduce new arrangements. During this time he was attached briefly to other establishments and on 15 December 1909 he was appointed second-in-command of the armoured cruiser Kent, again on the China Station, until himself promoted to captain on 31 December 1913.

On 1 December 1914, just after the start of the First World War, in which Japan was a British ally, he was appointed Naval Attaché to the British Embassy in Tokyo and in 1915 was authorized to wear the Order of the Rising Sun (3rd class) with which the Emperor decorated him for his work in Anglo-Japanese combined fleet operations. He remained in Tokyo for most of the war but from March 1918 commanded the cruiser Donegal, and from February 1919 the light cruiser Dublin both based at Devonport.

In September 1919 he was one of many officers and men specially commended by the Admiralty for their war work (and so recorded in the official Gazettes) rather than receiving any further decoration, presumably because their services were largely non-combattant. On 13 July 1922 he was placed on the retired list at his own request - though probably as part of the 'Geddes axe' post-war defence-cost reductions. His advance to rear-admiral was a retirement promotion and he subsequently worked for the Admiralty as a Nautical Assessor, 1926-37.

Rymer, known to his family as 'the Ad', was a keen gardener and sailor, out of Lymington, where their report credits him with invention of a sailing boat called an 'X-craft'. In 1937 he had a heart attack but lived until 9 July 1952, when he died suddenly in his garden at Little Brookley, Brockenhurst, Hants., while planning the day's work with his gardener. He was survived by his wife, Ada Mabel (née Owston, 1872-1959) whom he married at Brighton in June 1902, and their only daughter, baptized Evelyn Mary but known as Mollie (1907-79). She never married and was the source of this portrait, presented in December 1982 by Mrs Margaret Whitfield, widow of a cousin on the Owston side to whom it had passed. In October 1987 four of Rymer's photo and cuttings albums were also presented to the Museum by Mr John Gordon, another relative on that side, who in December 2010 also kindly supplied further family information. These albums (now ALB0929-0932) cover Rymer's career from about 1892 up to 1914, including photos of his ships and many places he served, and material on the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.