First World War Roll of Honour

George William Lyon was born in 1897, the son of Mr and Mrs M H Lyon of Gillingham, Kent, and was educated at the Mathematical School in Rochester before gaining a Junior Scholarship at Downing for entry in 1915. Instead of coming into residence that autumn, he joined a special school of training for the Royal Engineers and obtained his commission as 2nd Lieutenant with the Kent Fortress Company later that same year. He was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant.

Lt Lyon was killed in action on 16 April 1918, aged 21, while attached to the 511th London Field Company and was posthumously awarded the Military Cross ‘for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when entrusted with the destruction of a Royal Engineers dump’. His citation, in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 26 July 1918, reads: ‘He continued this work under heavy shell fire, and with the knowledge of the proximity of the enemy, and that the bridges behind him were being destroyed. His services were invaluable, and his courage and tenacity set a grand example to his men’.

He is buried in Boves West Communal Cemetery.