606 Lyon Playfair

Constituency : Edinburgh  and  St  Andrews  Universities  1868-74, Leeds  South  1885-92

Lyon  took  the  new  seat  of  Edinburgh  and  St  Andrews  Universities.

Lyon  was  born  in  India  ; his  father  was  a  civil  servant  there. He  had  been  educated  at  both the  institutions  he  represented. Lyon  seems  to  have  had  a  dual  career  as  a  businessman  with  a  calico  works  and  an  academic  scientist. He  was  a  Professor  of  Chemistry  at  both  Manchester   and  Edinburgh. In  1853  he  worked  in  the  Department  of  Science  where  he advocated  the  use  of  poison  gas  against  the  Russians.

In  1873  Lyon  was  appointed  Postmaster-General  in  Gladstone's  first  government. From  1880  to 1893  he  was  Chairman  of  Ways  And  Means  and  Deputy  Speaker. In  1886  he  was  Vice-President  of  the  Committee  on  Education.

Lyon  was  interested  in  questions  of  public  health  and  in  1883  made  a  passionate  speech  in  favour  of  compulsory  vaccination  against  smallpox.

In  1892  Lyon  stepped  down  and  was  elevated  to  the  peerage  as  Baron  Playfair. He  served  as  a whip  in  the  Lords  for  Gladstone  and  Rosebery.

He  died  in  1898  aged  80.