LYALL, DAVID (1817-95) was born at Auchinleck, Scotland, and educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities. Having entered the Royal Navy, he was chosen in 1839, on account of his knowledge of natural history, as assistant surgeon in the Terror, under Sir John Clark Ross (Hooker holding the same position in the Erebus). He served in this capacity (much of the time in New Zealand waters and the Antarctic) until 1842, when he was sent to the Mediterranean.

Promoted surgeon, Lyall came to New Zealand again as surgeon and naturalist in the Acheron. Returning to England in 1852, he volunteered as surgeon in Belcher's expedition to find Franklin, and was posted to the Assistance. For the next two years he was senior medical officer in the relief expedition, with jurisdiction over many crews then concentrated in the Arctic. He served in the Pembroke in the Russian war (1855), had a short term in the Royal William, and was then appointed to the surveying ship Plumper, delimiting the boundary between Great Britain and the United States in the north Pacific. Following this he was surgeon and naturalist to the land boundary commission under Sir John Hawkins, R.E. He was medical officer again in the Pembroke, and in 1868 received a home appointment, from which he retired in 1873 as deputy-inspector-general.

Lyall's activities as a naturalist are recorded in the early scientific history of New Zealand and the Antarctic. His work was much appreciated by Hooker. He died on 25 Feb 1895.

J. C. Ross, A Voyage of Discovery ... 1839-43, 1847; J. D. Hooker, The Botany of Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror, 1844; The Times, 2 Mar 1895.

Reference: Volume 1, page 272

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