One of the leading businessmen in Bourne during the last century was Tom Lyall, an auctioneer and valuer, who also played an active part in public life.

He was a senior partner in the firm of Buckworth, Lyall and Co and after spending much of his life in the business, retired in April 1967 but retained an interest in the firm as a consultant.

Thomas Reginald Lyall was born at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in 1895 and educated at Mount School, Newark, becoming articled to Mr G Tinsley of Lincoln, later passing his final examination of the Auctioneers and Estate Agents Institute.

During the Great War of 1914-18, he served first with the Northants Yeomanry for four years in Egypt and France and completed his service as a captain with the Machine Gun Corps.

Returning to civilian life, he resumed his career in Lincoln and in 1922, moved to Bourne as assistant, later partner, to J H Longstaffe and subsequently acquired the Bourne and Stamford businesses of Messrs Longstaffe and Lyall, founding the firm of Lyall and Co.

He was a past president of the Lincolnshire branch of the Auctioneers Institute and vice-president of the county branch of the Valuers' Association. During the Second World War of 1939-45 he became chairman of Bourne auctioneers for the Ministry of Food and agent for the 15,000 acre Brundell Estate at Deene Park, near Oundle.

In 1922, Mr Lyall married a Norwegian girl, Mary Nicoline Aagaard, and they made their home at Chevington House in North Road, later moving to a house which he had built in South Street known as Guy's Lodge, a reference to the tale, later disproved, that the Gunpowder plot had been hatched at the Red Hall which stood next door.

He was always active in public life, being elected to Bourne Urban District Council in 1938 and remained a member for the next 25 years, serving as chairman of the highways authority and as council chairman for the year 1952-53.

Mr Lyall died at the Butterfield Hospital in Bourne, in September 1967, aged 72, and hundreds attended his funeral at the Abbey Church including farmers and business associates, followed by cremation at Peterborough. He left a widow, a son, Mr H A Lyall, and two daughters, Mrs Irene Decamp and Miss Audrey Lyall.

Mrs Lyall died in February 1988, aged 95, and her funeral was held at the Abbey Church. She was the daughter of a Norwegian sea captain and had travelled extensively with her father before marrying her husband. After an active life, she had been in failing health for some years and eventually moved into Chevington House which by then had, ironically, become a residential home for the elderly.

See also Louis Decamp