Captain Sydney James Lyle
Sydney James Lyle was born at Coleraine on 14 January 1874, son of James Acheson Lyle and his wife Emily Octavia Lyle (nee Ward).
On 21 June 1907 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the North of Ireland Imperial Yeomanry. He remained with the regiment when it became the North Irish Horse in July 1908. He resigned his commission in the North Irish Horse on 22 February 1911.
At the beginning of the war Lyle applied for a commission, and on 17 September 1914 was appointed as a captain in the 12th Royal Irish Rifles. He embarked for France with the battalion, part of the 36th (Ulster) Division, at the beginning of October 1915.
At the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916 Lyle was severely wounded by a bullet in the left chest and lung. Evacuated to the Endsleigh Palace Hospital in England, he remained seriously ill for some time. However by March 1917 a medical board reported that he had fully recovered and he was posted to the 18th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, at Clandeboye Camp east of Belfast.
In the meantime Lyle had been awarded a Military Cross (1 January 1917).
On 26 November 1917 he transferred to the Army Service Corps and early the next year he returned to France, posted to the Corps’ 36th Divisional Train.
He was demobilized on 24 April 1919.
Lyle died on 26 Sep 1944.