Michael was born on 28 January 1919 in Willesden, Middlesex, with the surname Melinsky, to Alexander Melinsky and Alice nee Chadwick and he had a younger brother Robert. Their father worked as a cigarette manufacturer and he died in 1925 at the age of thirty-five. Alice remarried in 1930 to Robert Ryley and Michael took his stepfathers surname. By 1939, Alice was divorced from Robert and in the Register she is listed as divorced and living with Frederick Francis, a licenced victualler, at the Kings Head public house in Kensington, London.

In 1937, Michael enlisted into the Royal Air Force with the service number 742623 and by 1941 he had transferred to the Army in the Royal Fusiliers (London Regiment). Michael died in Burma serving in the 45th Regiment of the Reconnaissance Corps.