Cecil Wykeham LYDALL (1873-1916)

Cecil Wykeham Lydall (1873-1916) was the former schoolmaster of George Sladden when a pupil at Bancroft’s School, Essex.

Cecil Lydall was born at St Pancras, London, on 9th January 1873, the second of five children of Wykeham Hawthorne Lydall, a physician and surgeon, and his wife, Sarah Eleonora.  He was baptised at St Peter, Pancras, on 1st May 1873.  He was a nephew of Lord French.

Cecil Lydall was educated at Bradfield College, Reading, and Worcester College, Oxford.  At the time of the 1901 census he was Assistant Schoolmaster at Bancroft’s, lodging at 11 Whitehall Road.

He was ordained deacon in the diocese of Southwark in 1905 and for a year was curate of St Peter’s Battersea, before being appointed a chaplain in the navy.  In 1908, Reverend Lydall was initiated into the Lodge of St John & St Paul, Malta, as a freemason.  In 1911 he was on board a navy vessel in the Mediterranean.

During the First World War, Reverend Lydall saw action with the Royal Navy.  He was killed in action, aged 43, on 31st May 1916 at the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea.  He had been due to marry his fiancée, Grace Clark, on 12th June 1916.

Reverend Lydall is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.