Algernon Islay de Courcy Lyons was a Welsh photographer, novelist and linguist.
Life and work
Born in Langland, Glamorgan, Wales on 7 March 1922, the son of Captain John Algernon de Courcy Lyons, M.C. and Doris Ada née Campbell Young. In his lifetime, he was normally just called Islay The photographs of Lyons illustrate the works of several twentieth century literary figures, including Bryher and Graham Greene. Lyons was the friend of the film-maker, Kenneth Macpherson, both of them living in the ‘Villa Tuoro’ on Capri, where Norman Douglas was their constant companion during the last years of Douglas’s life. Both Macpherson and Lyons were at Norman Douglas’s bedside when he died. Lyons died on 17 November 1993, in Chiang-Mai, Thailand.
Legacy
Part of Lyons’s inheritance to his fostered Thai son, Manop Charoensuk, was a large quantity of photos, books, and letters relating to the life of Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, the novelist and poet. It is believed that Fersen bequeathed the inheritance to Norman Douglas, who bequeathed it to Kenneth Macpherson. On Macpherson’s death, Lyons inherited the estate. Charoensuk sold it to an American millionaire. In 2002, the complete collection was offered by Sotheby’s in London to the Americanantiquarian bookseller David Deiss, but it was eventually bought by an unknown British dealer. It is probable, although unconfirmed, that most, if not all, of this inheritance, is what the Beinecke acquired in 2008 and now forms part of the 'Norman Douglas Collection. Some of de Courcy Lyons’s work is held in various collections in the United States, notably the Catherine Walston/Graham Greene Papers at Georgetown Library, the Nancy Cunard Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center and the Norman Douglas Collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Islay Lyons - Photographs. Introduced by William Warren Privately Printed: Éditions Didier Millet..
Omnes Eodem Cogimur: Some Notes Following the Death of Norman Douglas. Privately Printed: . A memorial album with twenty-five photographs by Islay Lyons of Douglas and his friends, including Nancy Cunard, Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham and many others.
