Biography
Centre forward Sam Lyon joined City in December 1912 from his home town club Prescot Athletic, charting a path followed by his younger brother Jack 10 months later. Sam was given his debut on Christmas Day 1912 and started the Boxing Day fixture too. He returned to the first team in February 1913 and scored his only City goal in a 3-1 win over Bristol City at Anlaby Road. With five starts under his belt Sam remained at City for 1913/14 season, but made just one further appearance, Bristol City again the opponents.
Sam Lyon left City in June 1914 and joined Barnsley, where he made 8 starts and scored 3 goals during 1914/15. The Football League was suspended at the end of the season.
Sam was widely reported as having died during World War 1 battle on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Somme offensive, while serving in the Middlesex Regiment’s Football Battalion. However this has been shown to be incorrect and reports mistook him for a namesake from London.
Stories of his early demise were proven incorrect by the man himself, when approached by a Hull Daily Mail reporter in 1948. It transpired that during World War 1 he served in the 10th East Yorkshire Regiment, nicknamed the Hull Pals or Hull Commercials, receiving serious injuries that required 15 months spent in French and English hospitals.
Between 1909 and 1913 Sam served in the Territorial Army while also playing professional football. After the WW1 hostilities ceased and he recovered from his injuries, Sam was unable resume his football career and worked as a wholesale fish merchant while living in Gypsyville. He was a prominent bowls player in the Hull area, a member of Springhead Park and Wolfreton clubs. He married Ethel Cobby in 1924, who sadly died young at 46 years of age in 1945. In 1948 he represented Yorkshire in a bowls match against a South Africa touring side. In 1949 he won the Fish Trades Cup, a bowling competition played in Glasgow that was open to players from coastal port towns and cities across the Britsih Isles. At this time Sam reported that brother Jack, another ex-Tiger, had returned to Prescot and was also an expert crown green bowler.
Lyon spent his later years living in Cottingham and eventually caught up with the narrative, dying in December 1977 just a few weeks shy of his 88th birthday.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 20 January 1890, Prescot
Hull City First Game: 25 December 1912, Stockport County H (Division Two), 22 years, 340 days old
Hull City Final Game: 11 October 1913, Bristol City H (Division Two), 23 years, 264 days old
Clubs
Prescot Athletic, Hull City (1912-1914), Barnsley (1914-1915)
Hull City Record
Career: 6 apps, 1 goals
Sam Lyon| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1912/13 | 5 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1913/14 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |