Patrick Ryan was born in the Isle of Wight in 1916 to a family of Irish origin. he was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School. On the outbreak of war in 1939 he enlisted in an Infantry Regiment, was commissioned as an officer, and then transferred to the Reconnaissance Corps of the Royal Armoured Corps. He served in North Africa, Italy, and Greece.

He moved to Leeds in the 1950s as Assistant Head Postmaster, and his "apprenticeship" in adapting to Yorkshire life is related in his humorous memoir How I Became A Yorkshireman, published in the late 1960s. He later became Head Postmaster at Harrogate and became a regular contributor for Punch in the 1960s.