Charles Lyell (Liberal politician)


Charles Henry Lyell was a British politician and Liberal Member of Parliament who died in the First World War.

Education and private life

Lyell was born in 1875, the only son of Leonard Lyell, 1st Baron Lyell, and was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. Whilst at Oxford he became a Freemason in the Apollo University Lodge, a Masonic lodge for students and former students of the university.
He married Rosalind Watney in 1911, and had one son, Charles Anthony Lyell and one daughter.

Political career

Lyell was elected to represent East Dorset in a 1904 by-election, and was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, in 1906. He was re-elected at the 1906 general election, but failed to win election in the January 1910 general election, where he contested Edinburgh West. He was elected for Edinburgh South at a by-election in April, and won re-election in the December general election. He was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to H. H. Asquith, the Prime Minister, in February 1911, and stood down from the seat in May 1917.

Military career

Lyell was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Forfar and Kincardine Artillery Militia in 1900, and served until 1908 when the Militia was dissolved under the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907. He then served as the Vice-Chairman of the County Territorial Association for Forfarshire. On the outbreak of the First World War, he was gazetted a captain in the Fife Royal Garrison Artillery, and in May 1915 made a major in the Highland Battery of the Fife RGA.

Death

Charles Henry Lyell died on 18 October 1918 of pneumonia during the global Spanish flu pandemic while serving as Assistant Military Attaché to the US, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Lyell is commemorated on Panel 1 of the Parliamentary War Memorial in Westminster Hall, one of 22 MPs that died during World War I to be named on that memorial. A further act of commemoration came with the unveiling in 1932 of a manuscript-style illuminated book of remembrance for the House of Commons, which includes a short biographical account of the life and death of Lyell.