Original Photograph in a cardboard jacket of Miss Kathleen Lyon
Original Photograph of Miss Lyon in a cardboard jacket marked 'Gabell, 13 Eccleston St. SW' This is a well-known photograph with a copy included in an early museum acquisition - 2001.326.003 picture #3688 A resident of Dornoch until her death in 1983, Miss Kathleen Lyon had many talents as an artist, photographer and writer. ‘Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes’ has an entry for her father Cmdr Alexander Lyon (d 1932) in the 1926 edition and Miss Lyon in the 1973 edition. A two-page typed memorial address provides a summary of her life: "An only child she was born in New Zealand in 1885 and came to Great Britain when she was 7 years old. Initially she spent winters in London with her parents, staying with her maternal Grandmother, Mrs Dugald Gilchrist of Ospisdale, Sutherland. At Ospisdale, a house full of treasures, her great love of her mother’s native county grew and her interests in the landscape and wildlife of Sutherland developed to become a consuming passion for the rest of her life. In the early years of the 20th century the Lyon family decided to make their home at Ospisdale throughout the year and apart from her education at Cheltenham Ladies College and a two-year spell in Paris studying art, Kathleen remained in Scotland until about 1929. The family then moved to North Wales where her father had connections. Both her parents died within a few years and at the outbreak of WW2, in her fifties, Kathleen enlisted in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and became a recruiting Sergeant in Wrexham. Illness curtailed her military service but she remained in this area for several years working diligently for the Red Cross. With her heart always in the Highlands she came back to live in Dornoch where the slender old lady, invariably accompanied by her little white terrier, became a ‘kenspeckle’ (easily recognised) figure. She died aged 98 in 1983 and her funeral service was conducted by the Rev James Simpson in Dornoch Cathedral and attended by her only cousin, Mrs Peter Barclay of Little Dunham Lodge, Kings Lyn." (Source of description text: a two-page typewritten copy of an memorial address, the complete copy of which can be accessed from the pdf file link below.)
Dimensions: Height 305 mm - Width 125 mm