Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Private C. F. Lyon, 21st Canadian Infantry, late Bedfordshire Regiment

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State (6657 Pte. C. Lyon, Bedford Regt.); King’s South Africa 1901-02, 2 clasps, South Africa 1901, South Africa 1902 (6657 Pte. C. Lyon. Bedford: Regt.); 1914-15 Star (59612 Pte. C. F. Lyon. 21/Can. Inf:); British War and Victory Medals (59612 Pte. C. F. Lyons [sic]. 21-Can. Inf.) generally very fine (5) £240-£280

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, December 2009.

Charles Lyon was born in Hamilton, New Zealand on 3 August 1874. He was the fifth of seven children of Colonel William Charles Lyon, a descendant of the Lyons of Glamis, Earls of Strathmore. He attested for the Corps of Dragoons at London on 3 March 1899, aged 24 years, 6 months but was transferred to the Bedfordshire Regiment in November the same year. With them he served as mounted infantry in South Africa, June 1900-April 1905. Lyon was transferred to the Army Reserve in March 1906 and was discharged on 2 March 1911. He then worked as a Lumberman, in Haliburton, Canada and he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in November 1914, subtracting three years from his age in order to do so. He sailed to England aboard the R.M.S. Metagama in May 1915 and embarked for France in October. He was slightly wounded in March 1916, suffering a gunshot wound to his right eyebrow and lower lip. In September he was posted back to England and spent the rest of the war on the strength of various Canadian military hospitals. Charles Lyon was honourably discharged in April 1918 and at first lived once more in Haliburton, Ontario but by the 1930’s had returned once more to England. Lyon died at Matfield on 8 October 1960.

Lyon was additionally recorded in a news article titled ‘Honored Soldier Returned’ (to Haliburton), in which it was stated, ‘.... He was three times wounded in action, once so badly that he was erroneously reported killed. ....’ Lyon was also the subject of an article, ‘The Elusive Photograph’, by Dan Lyon, published in Medal News, October 2005.