Editing Nicholas Lyell

{{Short description|English politician (1938–2010)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
|name             = The Lord Lyell of Markyate
|honorific-suffix = [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]] [[Queen's Counsel|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, Baron Morris of Aberavon|John Morris]]
|successor        = [[Edward Garnier]]
|office1          = [[Attorney General for England and Wales]]<br>[[Attorney General for Northern Ireland]]
|primeminister1   = [[John Major]]
|term_start1      = 10 April 1992
|term_end1        = 2 May 1997
|predecessor1     = [[Patrick Mayhew]]
|successor1       = [[John Morris, Baron Morris of Aberavon|John Morris]]
|office2          = [[Solicitor General for England and Wales]]
|primeminister2   = [[Margaret Thatcher]]<br>[[John Major]]
|term_start2      = 13 June 1987
|term_end2        = 10 April 1992
|predecessor2     = [[Patrick Mayhew]]
|successor2       = [[Derek Spencer]]
|constituency_MP3 = [[North East Bedfordshire]]
|term_start3      = 1 May 1997
|term_end3        = 14 May 2001
|predecessor3     = Constituency established
|successor3       = [[Alistair Burt]]
|constituency_MP4 = [[Mid Bedfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Mid Bedfordshire]]
|term_start4      = 9 June 1983
|term_end4        = 8 April 1997
|predecessor4     = [[Stephen Hastings]]
|successor4       = [[Jonathan Sayeed]]
|constituency_MP5 = [[Hemel Hempstead (UK Parliament constituency)|Hemel Hempstead]]
|term_start5      = 3 May 1979
|term_end5        = 13 May 1983
|predecessor5     = [[Robin Corbett]]
|successor5       = Constituency abolished
|birth_date       = {{birth date|1938|12|6|df=y}}
|birth_place      = [[London]], England
|death_date       = {{death date and age|2010|8|30|1938|12|6|df=y}}
|death_place      = [[Berkhamsted]], [[Hertfordshire]], England
|party            = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
|alma_mater       = [[Christ Church, Oxford]]
}}
'''Nicholas Walter Lyell, Baron Lyell of Markyate''', [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]], [[Queen's Counsel|QC]] (6 December 1938 – 30 August 2010) was a British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] politician, known for much of his active political career as '''Sir Nicholas Lyell.'''

==Early life==
Born in London, he was the son of Sir [[Maurice Lyell]], a [[High Court of Justice|High Court judge]], and Veronica Luard, a sculptor and designer whose father, [[Lowes Dalbiac Luard]],<ref>[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.</ref> 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.<ref name=GuardObit/>

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]].<ref name=GuardObit/> 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.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

==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.<ref name=GuardObit/>

==Political career==
After unsuccessfully contesting [[Lambeth Central]] in [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|October 1974]], Lyell was elected Member of Parliament for [[Hemel Hempstead (UK Parliament constituency)|Hemel Hempstead]] winning the seat from Labour in 1979, then [[Mid Bedfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Mid Bedfordshire]] from 1983, and moved to [[North East Bedfordshire]] at the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|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 for England and Wales|Solicitor-General]] from 1987 to 1992 under [[Margaret Thatcher]], during which time he appeared in the [[Factortame]] case,<ref>[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:61989J0221:EN:HTML eur-lex: official version of 2nd ECJ decision in re Factortame]</ref> and [[Attorney General for England and Wales]] and [[Attorney General for Northern Ireland|Northern Ireland]] under [[John Major]] from 1992 to 1997. He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1987.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=51019 |date=4 August 1987 |page=9885}}</ref> He stood down as an MP at the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 election]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/690030.stm|title=Tory MP to step down|date=24 March 2000|work=[[BBC News]]|publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation]]|access-date=1 November 2008}}</ref>

Commenting on Lyell's retirement as an MP, Conservative Party chairman [[Michael Ancram]] said:
{{cquote|Nick Lyell served his country and his party extremely well as attorney general and in a number of other senior roles in the last Conservative Government and he has been a tireless servant of his constituents during his 21 years in Parliament. His presence will be missed by all at Westminster. I am extremely grateful for all the years of service Nick has put in for the Conservative Party and I wish him well in his retirement.}}

===Matrix Churchill affair===
{{main|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.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

==Peerage==
On 13 May 2005, it was announced that he would be created a [[life peer]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4544507.stm|title=Full list of new life peers|date=13 May 2005|work=[[BBC News]]|publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation]]|access-date=1 November 2008}}</ref> and on 27 June 2005 he was created '''Baron Lyell of Markyate''', of [[Markyate]] in the County of Hertfordshire.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=57689 |date=30 June 2005 |page=8499}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldjournal/239/026.htm|title=House of Lords Journal 239 (Session 2005–06)|date=4 July 2005|publisher=[[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]|pages=124|access-date=1 November 2008}}</ref>

==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==
Married to Susanna, 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.<ref name=GuardObit>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/aug/30/lord-lyell-of-markyate-obituary|title=Lord Lyell of Markyate obituary|author=Peter Bottomley|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 August 2010|access-date=30 August 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11133278|title=Former Attorney General Lord Lyell dies aged 71|publisher=BBC New|date=30 August 2010|access-date=30 August 2010}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Hansard-contribs | sir-nicholas-lyell | Nicholas Lyell }}

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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyell, Nicholas}}
[[Category:1938 births]]
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[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:Attorneys general for England and Wales]]
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