David Lyell
David Lyell (1866-1940)
1940 Obituary [1]
DAVID LYELL, C.M.G., D.S.O., R.E. (ret.), was born a t Gardyne Castle, Guthrie, Scotland, in 1866, and died at Logie, Kirriemuir, Scotland, on the 8th December, 1940.
He served his engineering pupilage on the South London Main Drainage from 1882 to 1885, and then pursued his studies at Edinburgh University until 1888.
In May, 1889, he was appointed to the staff of Mr. John Wilson, M.Inst.C.E., at Liverpool Street Station, and in 1891 became resident engineer on the London and Blackwall Railway widening from Fenchurch Street to Stepney.
In 1895 he was the representative of the Great Eastern Railway Company on the Lancashire, Derbyshire, and East Coast Railway, under Mr. Wilson, who, in 1898, appointed him assistant in charge of new works on the Great Eastern Railway.
From 1900 to 1902 he was on military service in South Africa. Afterwards he did much engineering contracting work in South Africa, and also served with the Transvaal Volunteers. He then worked in South America, Russia, and Canada until 1914.
During the great war he was Chief Railway Construction Engineer to the British Army in France, holding the rank of Colonel in the Royal Engineers. He received mention in dispatches and was awarded the D.S.O. in 1917, and the C.M.G. in 1918, whilst other awards included the Order of Leopold of Belgium, the Legion of Honour, the Crois de Guerre, and the Order of Aviz of Portugal.
During recent years he was managing director of Messrs. Pauling & Co., Ltd., civil engineering contractors, who carried out a number of large harbour and railway contracts in South Africa, and also work in South America and Great Britain.
Col. Lye11 was elected an Associate Member of The Institution on the 3rd March, 1892, and was transferred to the class of Member on the 13th February, 1900. In 1920 he presented a Paper1 entitled “The Work Done by Railway Troops in France during 1914-19,” for which he was awarded a Telford gold medal and a Telford premium.
In 1909 he married Kathleen Constance May, daughter of the late Colonel C. J. Briggs, D.L.I., and had two sons.