William Lyle

William Lyle (30 March 1871 – 2 August 1949)

On 15 December 1942, the Commons debated a motion proposed by Lyle for the creation of a dedicated Ministry of Health, in view of the sweeping changes needed to implement the recently published Beveridge Report. He used the debate to attack the Minister of Home Affairs, Dawson Bates, whose brief included health.

Lyle was defeated at the 1945 general election. In the 4-seat single transferable vote constituency, he polled in sixth place less with than 10% of the first preference votes. However at the general election in February 1949, his slightly increased 11.2% of first preferences was enough to win him the fourth seat. He held that seat until his death 6 months later, on 2 August 1949, at the age of 78.