Lilian Lyle

Lilian Lyle (16 March 1867 – 6 May 1953) was a British teacher, botanist, and phycologist who collected and published on a number of algae species during the 1920s. Lyle was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London on 17 June 1915.

Life Lilian Lyle was born in Hackney, London in 1867, the daughter of Henry B. Lyle, a general practitioner, and Frances S. Lyle (née Bluett).

In Guernsey, Lyle built on the earlier work of Ernest David Marquand to systematically record marine algae. The species bears her name.

Lyle explored Guernsey's marine ecology in detail, and later compared it that found elsewhere. The vessels studied were from a salvaged fleet of German warships, an opportunity 'so unusual as to be valuable' despite the number of years passed since their sinking.

Though collecting, pressing, and presenting flowers and seaweeds was a popular pastime during the Victorian period in particular, leading to a number of albums finding their way into museum collections, Lyle's represents the 'one serious academic collection' in the Guille-Allès Museum of Guernsey.

Death Lilian Lyle died on 6 May 1953 in a nursing home in Bromley, aged 86. 'Antithamnionella, A New Genus of Algae', Journal of Botany: British and foreign, Vol. 60, No. 6, 1922 'Some Preliminary Notes on the Driftweed around Worthing', Journal of Botany, Vol. 76, 1938