Person Record
Images
Metadata
Name |
Lyon, George Armstrong |
Born |
1878 |
Spouse |
Marjorie Randolph Van Wickle Lyon |
Children |
No children |
Deceased Date |
1954 |
Notes |
George Armstrong Lyon was Marjorie Van Wickle's husband, born in 1878, in Erie, Pennsylvania, son of a Rear Admiral, and grandson of an Episcopal Bishop. He attended Lawrenceville School in New Jersey where he first showed promise as a first-class tennis player, and he graduated from Yale University in 1900. On leaving Yale, George went to Germany to study at the Universities of Gottingen and Heidelberg, where he kept a diary that is kept in the Archives at Blithewold. He wrote about studying, being with friends, playing billiards, and ice skating. On his return to America, George studied for three years at Harvard Law School where his natural ability in sports led to his nickname "Tiger Lyon," or simply "Tige", which stuck for the rest of his life; and he held the distinction of having been captain of tennis of both Yale University and Harvard University. It was probably while he was at law school in Cambridge that he met Marjorie Van Wickle, and began a ten-year courtship to persuade her to be his wife. Marjorie resisted vehemently until 1911 when George wrote "… I was so glad to get your note of December 27. That's the sweetest, truest letter you've ever written me, and so different from anything you've ever said before that it makes my heart ache …" They were married in the Enclosed Garden at Blithewold in June, 1914, by Bishop Boyd Vincent, George's uncle. In 1917, George joined the US Army and spent a year of Officers' Training in Columbia, South Carolina. When America entered World War I, George served as a Captain in the Infantry in Chaumont, France. In appreciation of his service, he was awarded the prestigious "Croix de Guerre" by the French government. After the war, George and Marjorie bought a town house on Acorn Street in Boston, and later a house in Brookline, and George spent the rest of his working years with Scudder, Stevens & Clark in Boston as a financial consultant. But he was never comfortable in his chosen profession, and much preferred his forays into the wilds of America and Canada, hunting and fishing. He hunted in Alaska, Wyoming, and Canada where he hunted grizzly bears, and Costa Rica where he stalked "jaguar, puma, and other cats." At Blithewold he enjoyed swimming, sailing, billiards, and tennis, and excelled at them all. He was a prominent member of the Tennis and Racquet Club of Boston, Captain of the Harvard Alumni Racquet and Tennis Club, and President of the Longwood Cricket Club. His lifelong regret was that he and Marjorie never had children. George Lyon died in Providence in 1954 at the age of seventy five, after a prolonged illness. He is buried at Juniper Hill Cemetery in Bristol. -- M. Whitehead, Blithewold Curator, 2011 |
