At the age of 15, Donald Macdonald Lyon ran away to sea. He sailed as a cabin boy from Grangemouth, bound for Riga on the SS Mercutio. He suffered from sea sickness and was discharged with a good conduct certificate at West Hartlepool on 29th August 1890.

He married Ann Webster and the couple took up residence in Edinburgh.  At  the birth of their daughter, Helen, in 1915 Donald was a bank accountant. In time, he rose to become a Branch Manager.   The couple had four children:

Mary Murray Lyon 1909-1997

Ramsay Drennan Lyon 1911- 1993

Margaret Malcolm Lyon 1913-1992

Helen Webster Lyon 1915-??

Of these only Helen married.

The eldest daughter, Mary Murray Lyon (1909 – 1997) spent her working life in Edinburgh at the offices of Chiene & Tait, Chartered Accountants. She was a member of the Red Cross during W.W.II.

Ramsay Drennan Lyon (1911 – 1993) graduated from Edinburgh University Medical School in 1933 and did his residencies at Canterbury, Leith General and Bootle General, Liverpool. He served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the Middle East, seeing action in Egypt, Iraq and the Lebanon, and was present at the Allied landings at Anzio.

Margaret Malcolm Lyon (1911 – 1992) trained at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary School of Nursing. She graduated in 1938, subsequently qualifying as a midwife. She was admitted to the Royal College of Nursing in 1954.

Helen Webster Lyon married Percival Brown at St Stephen’s Church, Edinburgh in March 1951.