Former law chief Lord Lyell dies of cancer at 71

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 19:25 EST, 30 August 2010


Lord Lyell: The law chief, seen here in 2000, lived with cancer for 12 years

Lord Lyell: The law chief, seen here in 2000, lived with cancer for 12 years

Lord Lyell, the former Attorney General who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, died yesterday. He was 71.

As Sir Nicholas Lyell, he was appointed Solicitor General by Mrs Thatcher in 1987.

He served in the post until 1992 when Mr Major, her successor as prime minister, made him the Government's most senior law officer. He remained Attorney General until 1997 and the following year was diagnosed with cancer.

His widow Susanna said yesterday: 'He died peacefully, after living so vigorously with cancer for the last 12 years. His family were all with him.'

Lord Lyell's time in office saw him at the centre of the controversy over the sale of arms to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The 1996 Scott Report criticised him for trying to obtain a 'gagging order' to prevent the disclosure of secret documents concerning machine tool manufacturer Matrix Churchill and the supply of materials to Baghdad.

Despite the controversy, Mr Major stood by his Attorney General and Lyell became the longest continuously serving law officer for more than a century.

The peer was a practising barrister who maintained a successful private practice after being elected to Parliament in the Conservative landslide of 1979, when he won Hemel Hempstead from Labour. He later represented Mid-Bedfordshire and North-East Bedfordshire until he retired from the Commons in 2001.

He was called to the bar in 1965 and became Queen's Counsel in 1980, specialising in commercial and public law. In 2001 he won a landmark victory over the Home Office's imposition of penalties on road hauliers whose vehicles are infiltrated by stowaways.

Educated at Stowe and Oxford, he took up his career in the law after National Service in the Royal Artillery.

He was later Shadow Attorney General from 1997 to 1999 and was created Baron Lyell of Markyate in Hertfordshire in 2005, sitting on the Conservative benches in the Lords.

Lord Lyell leaves Susanna, two sons, Oliver and Alexander, and two daughters, Veronica and Mary Kate.