Nicholas Lyell

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English politician (1938–2010)

title: "Nicholas Lyell" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1938-births", "2010-deaths", "alumni-of-christ-church,-oxford", "attorneys-general-for-england-and-wales", "attorneys-general-for-northern-ireland", "english-king's-counsel", "deaths-from-cancer-in-england", "conservative-party-(uk)-life-peers", "conservative-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "lawyers-from-london", "members-of-the-privy-council-of-the-united-kingdom", "northern-ireland-government-ministers", "people-educated-at-stowe-school", "politicians-from-london", "politics-of-dacorum", "20th-century-king's-counsel", "solicitors-general-for-england-and-wales", "uk-mps-1979–1983", "uk-mps-1983–1987", "uk-mps-1987–1992", "uk-mps-1992–1997", "uk-mps-1997–2001", "people-from-markyate", "20th-century-english-lawyers", "knights-bachelor", "life-peers-created-by-elizabeth-ii", "royal-artillery-soldiers", "military-personnel-from-london", "20th-century-british-army-personnel"] description: "English politician (1938–2010)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Lyell" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English politician (1938–2010) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Lord Lyell of Markyate
honorific-suffix	PC QC
image	Lord Lyell of Markyate BBC.jpg
office	Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales
leader	John Major
term_start	2 May 1997
term_end	19 June 1997
predecessor	John Morris
successor	Edward Garnier
office1	Attorney General for England and Wales
Attorney General for Northern Ireland
primeminister1	John Major
term_start1	10 April 1992
term_end1	2 May 1997
predecessor1	Patrick Mayhew
successor1	John Morris
office2	Solicitor General for England and Wales
primeminister2	Margaret Thatcher
John Major
term_start2	13 June 1987
term_end2	10 April 1992
predecessor2	Patrick Mayhew
successor2	Derek Spencer
office3	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security
primeminister3	Margaret Thatcher
term_start3	10 September 1986
term_end3	13 June 1987
predecessor3	John Major
successor3	Michael Portillo
constituency_MP4	North East Bedfordshire
term_start4	1 May 1997
term_end4	14 May 2001
predecessor4	Constituency established
successor4	Alistair Burt
constituency_MP5	Mid Bedfordshire
term_start5	9 June 1983
term_end5	8 April 1997
predecessor5	Stephen Hastings
successor5	Jonathan Sayeed
constituency_MP6	Hemel Hempstead
term_start6	3 May 1979
term_end6	13 May 1983
predecessor6	Robin Corbett
successor6	Constituency abolished
office7	Member of the House of Lords
status7	Lord Temporal
termlabel7	Life peerage
term_start7	27 June 2005
term_end7	30 August 2010
birth_date
birth_place	London, England
death_date
death_place	Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England
party	Conservative
alma_mater	Christ Church, Oxford
::

Early life

Born in London, he was the son of Sir Maurice Lyell, a High Court judge, and Veronica Luard, a sculptor and designer whose father, Lowes Dalbiac Luard, had been a contemporary of Augustus John and Walter Sickert. His mother died when he was 11, leaving Lyell and his sister Prue to continue their mother's work to preserve the work of their grandfather.

Educated at Wellesley House School in the coastal town of Broadstairs in Kent and at Stowe School, he was his father's best man when he married the also widowed Kitty, Lady Farrar, younger daughter of Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford. Lyell read modern history at Christ Church, Oxford, where he joined the Bullingdon club, and after National Service with the Royal Artillery trained as a lawyer.

Legal career

Lyell trained with the firm associated with his stepmother's family, Walter Runciman and Co, and was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1965. He served his pupillage with Gordon Slynn, and after being part of the team that debated a case over the world's first onion-peeling machine, specialised in commercial and public law.

Political career

After unsuccessfully contesting Lambeth Central in October 1974, Lyell was elected Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead winning the seat from Labour in 1979, then Mid Bedfordshire from 1983, and moved to North East Bedfordshire at the 1997 election, having been defeated for the nomination by former Bristol MP Jonathan Sayeed in the Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

Lyell was one of very few lawyers to have combined a successful career in Parliament and a major private practice. He was also the longest continuously serving law officer for more than 100 years. After 20 years at the Bar he was appointed Solicitor-General from 1987 to 1992 under Margaret Thatcher, during which time he appeared in the Factortame case, and Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland under John Major from 1992 to 1997. He was knighted in 1987. He stood down as an MP at the 2001 election.

Commenting on Lyell's retirement as an MP, Conservative Party chairman Michael Ancram said:

Matrix Churchill affair

Main article: Arms-to-Iraq

Lyell was at the centre of the Matrix Churchill affair, the controversy to sell arms to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In 1996, the Scott Report directly criticised Lyell as Attorney General for trying to obtain a "gagging order" to prevent the disclosure of secret documents concerning machine tool and material supply to Baghdad. Prime Minister John Major chose to stand by Lyell.

Peerage

On 13 May 2005, it was announced that he would be created a life peer, and on 27 June 2005 he was created Baron Lyell of Markyate, of Markyate in the County of Hertfordshire.

Other interests

Lyell was a former chairman of the board of Governors of Stowe School, standing down from the role at the end of the 2006–7 academic year. Always interested in the countryside and culture, he was from 2005 Chairman of the Federation of British Artists at the Mall Galleries in London.

Lyell was an underwriting 'Name' at the Lloyd's of London insurance market. He joined in 1974 but suffered enormous losses in the bad years 1989 – 1992 as a result of the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster in 1988 and the tsunami of claims from asbestos-related Mesothelioma personal injury. His losses have variously been estimated to be between £622,591 and £2,000,000; he underwrote on numerous syndicates.

Personal life

Lyell was married to Susanna Fletcher, granddaughter of Lord Mottistone, the couple had two sons and two daughters. Lyell died in the Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire after a 12-year battle with cancer on 30 August 2010.

References

[https://books.google.com/books?id=3RVXAAAAYAAJ&dq=luard+family+genealogy&pg=RA1-PA1135 Sir Bernard Burke, ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry''], 14th ed. (London 1925), pp. 1135–1137.
[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:61989J0221:EN:HTML eur-lex: official version of 2nd ECJ decision in re Factortame]
{{London Gazette. (4 August 1987)
(24 March 2000). "Tory MP to step down". [[British Broadcasting Corporation]].
(13 May 2005). "Full list of new life peers". [[British Broadcasting Corporation]].
{{London Gazette. (30 June 2005)
(4 July 2005). "House of Lords Journal 239 (Session 2005–06)". [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]].
Peter Bottomley. (30 August 2010). "Lord Lyell of Markyate obituary". The Guardian.
(30 August 2010). "Former Attorney General Lord Lyell dies aged 71". BBC New.

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