Basic Biographical Details | Name: | Robert Lyon | | Designation: | | | Born: | 8 November 1879 | | Died: | 13 October 1963 | | Bio Notes: | Robert Lyon was born at Orwell Terrace, Edinburgh on 8 November 1879, the son of Robert Lyon, master grocer and his wife Rebecca Stewart who came from Clunie in Perthshire. As a boy he was afflicted with measles which left him blind in one eye. As he wanted to be an architect he was apprenticed first as a joiner in 1896 and then served a two-year apprenticeship with Lessels & Taylor in 1901-03, taking Jerdan's classes at Heriot-Watt. At the end of his articles he spent several years as an assistant and inspector of works. He emigrated to New York where he worked fro one year only from 1909.
In 1911 Lyon obtained an appointment of architectural engineer with the British Columbia Electric Railway Company for which he built a series of power stations, carriage sheds and stations of immensely powerful design which went far beyond anything he could have learned from Harry Ranmsay Taylor and the Jerdans. He married Sarah Evelyn O Coleman in 1918 and in 1920 became a shareholder and secretary-treasurer in the Andrew Rerrie Lumber Company. This did not hold his interest and in 1922 he commenced independent practice at Penticton where he had absolutely no competition. There he had a very large practice which in style embraced both art deco and modernism. He was a town councillor in 1929-32, again in 1943-44, was Reeve in 1946-47 and Mayor in 1948-49.
Lyon retired in 1958 at the age of seventy-eight and died in Penticton on 13 October 1963. | Private and Business Addresses| The following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes |  | New York, United States of America | Business | 1909 | | | | British Columbia, Canada | Business | 1910 | | | | Penticton, British Columbia, Canada | Private/business | 1922 | 1963 | |
Employment and TrainingEmployers| The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details): | | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | James Lessels and Harry Ramsay Taylor | 1901 | 1903 | Apprentice | |
ReferencesBibliographic References| The following books contain references to this : | | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Luxton, Donald (ed.) | 2003 | Building the West: the early architects of British Columbia | | Vancouver: Talon Books | Incorporating research by Robert Close |
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