Memorable Manitobans: Peyton Vaughan Lyon (1921-2011)

Political scientist, educator.

Born at Winnipeg on 2 October 1921, son of Silas Herbert Redmond Lyon and Fredrica Iveagh Lee (?-?), he attended Kelvin High School and United College until 1940 when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and served as a Flight Lieutenant and Observer. Following his military discharge, he entered the University of Manitoba where he was President of the Students’ Union (1947) and, as Vice-President for Western Canada of the University Liberal Federation, attended the 1948 Liberal convention in Ottawa where a successor to Mackenzie King was selected. He was Manitoba’s Rhodes Scholar for 1949 and received a doctoral degree at Oxford. He entered the Foreign Service and served as a diplomat in West Germany before returning to Canada. In 1959, he accepted a professorship in Political Science at the University of Western Ontario, moving in 1965 to Carleton University. He wrote a series of books, book chapters, and articles on Canadian foreign policy and Canada-US relations, especially relating to free trade, Europe, and NATO. In 1943, he married Frances Hazleton (?-1981) with whom he had three children. After retirement in 1987, he wrote a memoir of his wartime experiences entitled How Peyton Won the War. He died at Ottawa, Ontario on 24 March 2011.

Sources:

“Peyton Lyon,” Winnipeg Free Press, 15 February 1947, page 3.

“Peyton Lyon wins Rhodes scholarship,” Winnipeg Free Press, 29 November 1948, page 3.

Obituary [Herbert Redmond Lyon], Winnipeg Free Press, 24 January 1969, page 31.

Obituary, Ottawa Citizen.

Life and times of a great Canadian: Peyton V. Lyon, 1921-2011” by Douglas G. Anglin, 23 April 2011.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 29 April 2020

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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