Christ College Remembers… Captain C G Lyall

On Saturday 18th October at 11.05am the chapel bell will ring as a mark of respect and remembrance for Captain C G Lyall who died at La Basée on the 18th October 1914. He was the first Old Breconian to die on the Western Front.

CHARLES GEORGE LYALL was a pupil in School House between 1882 and 1884. His father was a Royal Navy Staff Surgeon and had been a member of expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.

The only record of Charles George Lyall at school is found in the results of the Athletic Sports of 1884, in which he gained second place in the 150 yards race. After leaving Christ College later that year, he returned home and attended Cheltenham College as a day boy until 1888.

He entered the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and passed out in 1892. He served in Malta, Egypt and South Africa before retiring from the Army in 1907 at the age of 36.

Already an experienced soldier, Charles was recalled to his Regiment at the outbreak of war. He joined his Battalion in France on 10th October 1914, the first day of the Battle of La Bassée (10th October – 2nd November). On October 18th 1914, just eight days after arriving in France, he was killed in action. His body was never recovered and he is remembered on the Le Touret Memorial in France. Captain Charles George Lyall (1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment) became the first Old Breconian to lose his life on the Western Front.