Alexander Lyle-Samuel
Encyclopedia
Alexander Lyle-Samuel was a businessman from Birmingham
and Liberal
member of the House of Commons. He represented the seat of Eye
in East Suffolk
from 1918
until 1923
and was involved in a difficult court case when he was forced to defend himself against a series of allegations made by a defeated political opponent.
Minister of Christ Church, Aston
in Birmingham
. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
. He married his first wife Eva, a lady from Antigua
in 1906. For whatever reason, this marriage was not a happy one, with financial difficulties causing the couple to separate. Eva Samuel also suffered with mental health problems and died in what was described in reports of the day as a ‘pauper lunatic asylum’. Lyle-Samuel assumed the additional name of Lyle by deed poll upon his second marriage with Julia G. Lyle of Springwood, Tenafly, New Jersey
. Mrs Lyle had apparently been a nurse at a New York hospital where she had cared for an elderly millionaire. They married and Mrs Lyle soon became a rich widow. Lyle-Samuel had three children. One son, Winstone, died in a bobsleighing
accident at St. Moritz
in 1929 aged 23.
. He remained with the bank until 1902. He was then employed as assistant organizer to a temperance movement
at the City Temple
. However he worked there for only a few months and then returned to Birmingham where he was employed on two newspapers until 1905. He then went into business first opening a hotel bureau and later began publication of a women’s magazine but both these enterprises failed.
Lyle-Samuel had ambitions to be a lawyer
and studied law at Cambridge. He was admitted to the Middle Temple
in January 1908. He travelled extensively in America, residing there from 1913–15. He returned to Britain to serve in the European War but was several times rejected for service. However he was later accepted and served as a Lieutenant until 1917, when he was invalided out. The following year Lyle-Samuel was appointed as Hon Secretary of the English Speaking Union soon after its establishment in 1918.
of East Suffolk
. The campaign in Eye was obviously difficult. Lyle-Samuel was first nominated as a Liberal against Colonel F W French who was described as a Coalition Conservative
. However just a couple of weeks later, French seems to have lost his Coalition
backing and was being described in the national press as an Independent Conservative. Lyle-Samuel then picked up the Coalition mantel and held the seat for the Liberals, beating French in a straight fight by a majority of 3,710 votes and 61% of the poll.
Lyle-Samuel stood as an Independent Liberal, not associating himself with the National Liberal
organisation that Lloyd George had set up, first to support the his Coalition government
with Conservatives
and then to contest the 1922 general election once the Coalition had fallen. In fact Lyle-Stewart was involved in a straight fight with a National Liberal, Stephen Howard, who was presumably supported, if only tacitly, by the Conservatives in Eye. It is not clear exactly when or why Lyle-Samuel fell out with the Coalition Liberals, although it was reported that his speech in Parliament in June 1921 objecting to the Safeguarding of Industries Bill, an anti-Free Trade measure, delighted Independent Liberals. He held his seat with a majority of 3,531.
. He was also a supporter of the traditional policy of Irish Home Rule
. He was elected as Master of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers
in 1922. In Parliament, he was appointed in 1923 to serve as a member of the Select Committee on the Taxation of Bets.
. This time he faced a three-cornered fight against Conservative and Labour
opponents, giving the Tories hope that they would gain the seat. Lyle-Samuel had by this time built a reputation as a respected local MP but his Unionist
challenger was also a popular character. Lord Huntingfield
, a title of the Irish peerage
, was a well-known county figure. Generations of his family had resided at Heveningham Hall
, Saxmundham
and farmed around 700 acres (2.8 km²) in the area, which made him attractive to the agricultural community. He was also known as a good public speaker. The Liberal Party nationally, reunited after the splits in the party between the supporters of Lloyd George and H H Asquith since 1916, and fighting on the traditional Liberal policy of Free Trade, made a revival at the 1923 general election. However the intervention of a Labour candidate muddied the political waters in Eye and Lord Huntingfield took the seat from Lyle-Samuel by a majority of 1,928 votes with Labour man, C W Kendall, in third place with 2,984 votes.
his health had recovered sufficiently for him to stand as a candidate again elsewhere. At first he was selected to fight the seat of Crewe
in Cheshire
. Crewe had a mostly Liberal tradition up to the time of the 1922 general election when it narrowly went Labour. In 1923 the Conservatives made it a three-cornered contest and the Liberal candidate fell to the bottom of the poll. This may have been a contest therefore which Lyle-Samuel felt required only his name but in the event he withdrew as Liberal candidate leaving the election as a straight fight between the sitting Labour MP Edward Hemmerde
and his Tory opponent Ernest Craig
, from which Craig emerged the victor.
Lyle-Samuel switched his political interest to the seat of Grantham
, Lincolnshire
. Grantham had had a Liberal MP as recently as 1922 but like Eye the seat had been lost to the Tories at the 1923 general election against the national trend. In a three-cornered contest, Lyle-Samuel held second place for the Liberals but the share of the vote declined. He did not stand for Parliament again.
(sic). It was also alleged that he had married his second wife also for her money and that he had then engaged in a company promoting transactions of a dishonest character. The newspaper had relied on an unnamed informant to source their story and the legal precedents of the day gave the papers a lot of leeway as to how far they were required to verify such disclosures. In a judgment which made it plain that the newspaper probably should have checked the source more closely, the judges in the Court of Appeal
nevertheless found that they had not acted outside the law and dismissed Lyle-Samuel’s appeal. Lyle-Samuel appealed again to the High Court
.
The case came back to court in December 1919, the Lord Chief Justice
hearing the matter sitting with a special jury. The judgment of the Lord Chief Justice was that the defendants had had no evidence to substantiate their allegations against Lyle-Samuel or to claim that was unfit to be a Member of Parliament. He also found that French and Pretty had made no effort to enquire into the truth of the charges they had heard against Lyle-Samuel before arranging for them to be published in the press. The jury found for Lyle-Samuel, awarding damages in the sum of £500. However one of the jurors wished it to be recorded that he had had great difficulty arriving at a verdict. The office of the Lord Chief Justice was at the time of trial held by Lord Reading
. Reading was a former Liberal MP and Cabinet Minister, close to Prime Minister
David Lloyd George
. There is no evidence that he approached the Lyle-Samuel case, the action of a political colleague, with anything other than the proper judicial detachment. The publishers, who were by now in different ownership than at the time of publication, later withdrew their pleas of justification, i.e. their claim that what they had published was true and agreed to pay Lyle-Samuel £525 to cover costs.
. He had always had close connections with the USA and he now went to live in New York
. In 1928 debts he had built up in Britain got so large that his affairs were put into the hands of the Official Receiver
. At this time he was described as residing at a hotel on East 54th Street and of being without occupation or in possession of any assets in Britain. As noted above, his personal life was also filled with tragedy when his son, Winstone, was involved in a bobsleighing accident in Switzerland and died of his injuries at the age of 23 years.
Lyle-Samuel died in New York in 1942.
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
member of the House of Commons. He represented the seat of Eye
Eye (UK Parliament constituency)
Eye was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of election...
in East Suffolk
East Suffolk
East Suffolk, along with West Suffolk, was created in 1888 as an administrative county of England. The administrative county was based on the eastern quarter sessions division of Suffolk...
from 1918
United Kingdom general election, 1918
The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...
until 1923
United Kingdom general election, 1923
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
and was involved in a difficult court case when he was forced to defend himself against a series of allegations made by a defeated political opponent.
Family and education
Lyle-Samuel was the son of the Reverend George Samuel, a BaptistBaptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Minister of Christ Church, Aston
Aston
Aston is an area of the City of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Lying to the north-east of the Birmingham city centre, Aston constitutes an electoral ward within the council constituency of Ladywood.-History:...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School is an independent secondary school in Birmingham, England, founded by King Edward VI in 1552. It is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, and is widely regarded as one of the most academically successful schools in the country, according to...
and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
. He married his first wife Eva, a lady from Antigua
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
in 1906. For whatever reason, this marriage was not a happy one, with financial difficulties causing the couple to separate. Eva Samuel also suffered with mental health problems and died in what was described in reports of the day as a ‘pauper lunatic asylum’. Lyle-Samuel assumed the additional name of Lyle by deed poll upon his second marriage with Julia G. Lyle of Springwood, Tenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 14,488. Tenafly is an affluent suburb of New York City....
. Mrs Lyle had apparently been a nurse at a New York hospital where she had cared for an elderly millionaire. They married and Mrs Lyle soon became a rich widow. Lyle-Samuel had three children. One son, Winstone, died in a bobsleighing
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled that are combined to calculate the final score....
accident at St. Moritz
St. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
in 1929 aged 23.
Career
At the age of 15, in 1898, Lyle-Samuel started work as a clerk at Lloyds BankLloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank Plc was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1765 until its merger into Lloyds TSB in 1995; it remains a registered company but is currently dormant. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies...
. He remained with the bank until 1902. He was then employed as assistant organizer to a temperance movement
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
at the City Temple
City Temple (London)
City Temple Church is a church on Holborn Viaduct in London, most famous as the preaching place of 20th century liberal theologian Leslie Weatherhead.Other notable preachers include Thomas Goodwin and Joseph Parker....
. However he worked there for only a few months and then returned to Birmingham where he was employed on two newspapers until 1905. He then went into business first opening a hotel bureau and later began publication of a women’s magazine but both these enterprises failed.
Lyle-Samuel had ambitions to be a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and studied law at Cambridge. He was admitted to the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
in January 1908. He travelled extensively in America, residing there from 1913–15. He returned to Britain to serve in the European War but was several times rejected for service. However he was later accepted and served as a Lieutenant until 1917, when he was invalided out. The following year Lyle-Samuel was appointed as Hon Secretary of the English Speaking Union soon after its establishment in 1918.
1918 general election
Lyle-Samuel was adopted as Liberal candidate for the Eye divisionEye (UK Parliament constituency)
Eye was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of election...
of East Suffolk
East Suffolk
East Suffolk, along with West Suffolk, was created in 1888 as an administrative county of England. The administrative county was based on the eastern quarter sessions division of Suffolk...
. The campaign in Eye was obviously difficult. Lyle-Samuel was first nominated as a Liberal against Colonel F W French who was described as a Coalition Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. However just a couple of weeks later, French seems to have lost his Coalition
Coalition Coupon
The ‘Coalition Coupon’, often referred to as ‘the coupon’, refers to the letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the United Kingdom general election, 1918 endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victory in...
backing and was being described in the national press as an Independent Conservative. Lyle-Samuel then picked up the Coalition mantel and held the seat for the Liberals, beating French in a straight fight by a majority of 3,710 votes and 61% of the poll.
1922 general election
At the 1922 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...
Lyle-Samuel stood as an Independent Liberal, not associating himself with the National Liberal
National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)
The National Liberal Party was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1922 to 1923. It was led by David Lloyd George and was, at the time, separate to the original Liberal Party.-History:...
organisation that Lloyd George had set up, first to support the his Coalition government
Coalition Government 1916-1922
The Coalition Government of David Lloyd George came to power in the United Kingdom in December 1916, replacing the earlier wartime coalition under H.H. Asquith, which had been held responsible for reverses during the Great War. Those Liberals who continued to support Asquith served as the Opposition...
with Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
and then to contest the 1922 general election once the Coalition had fallen. In fact Lyle-Stewart was involved in a straight fight with a National Liberal, Stephen Howard, who was presumably supported, if only tacitly, by the Conservatives in Eye. It is not clear exactly when or why Lyle-Samuel fell out with the Coalition Liberals, although it was reported that his speech in Parliament in June 1921 objecting to the Safeguarding of Industries Bill, an anti-Free Trade measure, delighted Independent Liberals. He held his seat with a majority of 3,531.
Political stance and main appointments
Lyle-Samuel described himself more than once in Parliament as a classical Liberal free-traderFree trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
. He was also a supporter of the traditional policy of Irish Home Rule
Irish Home Rule Movement
The Irish Home Rule Movement articulated a longstanding Irish desire for the repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 by a demand for self-government within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The movement drew upon a legacy of patriotic thought that dated back at least to the late 17th...
. He was elected as Master of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers
Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers
The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London.The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers and Looking-Glass Makers of London received its Charter in 1664...
in 1922. In Parliament, he was appointed in 1923 to serve as a member of the Select Committee on the Taxation of Bets.
1923 general election
Lyle-Samuel contested Eye again at the 1923 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1923
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...
. This time he faced a three-cornered fight against Conservative and Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
opponents, giving the Tories hope that they would gain the seat. Lyle-Samuel had by this time built a reputation as a respected local MP but his Unionist
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
challenger was also a popular character. Lord Huntingfield
William Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield
William Charles Arcedeckne Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield, KCMG was a British Conservative Party politician, Governor of Victoria and Administrator of Australia.-Early life:...
, a title of the Irish peerage
Peerage of Ireland
The Peerage of Ireland is the term used for those titles of nobility created by the English and later British monarchs of Ireland in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl,...
, was a well-known county figure. Generations of his family had resided at Heveningham Hall
Heveningham Hall
Heveningham Hall is a Grade I listed building in Heveningham, Suffolk that was built in 1780. The east wing was gutted by fire in June 1984.The hall and grounds were bought in 1994 by Foxtons-founder Jon Hunt and his wife for use as a family home...
, Saxmundham
Saxmundham
Saxmundham is a small market town in Suffolk, England. It is set in the valley of the River Fromus, a tributary of the River Alde, approximately northeast of Ipswich and west of the coast at Sizewell. The town is bypassed by the A12 and is served by Saxmundham railway station on the East Suffolk...
and farmed around 700 acres (2.8 km²) in the area, which made him attractive to the agricultural community. He was also known as a good public speaker. The Liberal Party nationally, reunited after the splits in the party between the supporters of Lloyd George and H H Asquith since 1916, and fighting on the traditional Liberal policy of Free Trade, made a revival at the 1923 general election. However the intervention of a Labour candidate muddied the political waters in Eye and Lord Huntingfield took the seat from Lyle-Samuel by a majority of 1,928 votes with Labour man, C W Kendall, in third place with 2,984 votes.
Later political contests
Lyle-Samuel seems to have been in uncertain health. It was noted in the press over the years that he had been advised by doctors to take breaks for the sake of his health and in March 1924 he was reported to have been ordered abroad by his medical adviser. As a result, he told the Eye Liberals that he was reluctantly compelled to withdraw as their candidate. However by the time of the 1924 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1924
- Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...
his health had recovered sufficiently for him to stand as a candidate again elsewhere. At first he was selected to fight the seat of Crewe
Crewe (UK Parliament constituency)
Crewe was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. Crewe had a mostly Liberal tradition up to the time of the 1922 general election when it narrowly went Labour. In 1923 the Conservatives made it a three-cornered contest and the Liberal candidate fell to the bottom of the poll. This may have been a contest therefore which Lyle-Samuel felt required only his name but in the event he withdrew as Liberal candidate leaving the election as a straight fight between the sitting Labour MP Edward Hemmerde
Edward Hemmerde
Edward George Hemmerde, KC was an English rower, barrister and politician.-Education, the Law and family:Hemmerde was born at Peckham, south London, the son of James Godfey Hemmerde and his wife Frances Hope. His father was a bank manager and was with the Imperial Ottoman Bank. Hemmerde was...
and his Tory opponent Ernest Craig
Ernest Craig
Sir Ernest Craig, 1st Baronet was a British Conservative Party politician.He was elected as Member of Parliament for the Crewe division of Cheshire at a by-election in July 1912 after the death of his Liberal predecessor, Walter McLaren...
, from which Craig emerged the victor.
Lyle-Samuel switched his political interest to the seat of Grantham
Grantham (UK Parliament constituency)
Grantham was a Parliamentary constituency in Lincolnshire, England.The constituency was created in 1468 as a parliamentary borough which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of England until the union with Scotland, and then to the Parliament of Great Britain...
, Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
. Grantham had had a Liberal MP as recently as 1922 but like Eye the seat had been lost to the Tories at the 1923 general election against the national trend. In a three-cornered contest, Lyle-Samuel held second place for the Liberals but the share of the vote declined. He did not stand for Parliament again.
Court case of 1919-1920
The political fight in Eye at the 1918 general election was clearly contested with a ferocious degree of intensity. During the campaign Lyle-Samuel was the subject of a number of allegations which went beyond the usual cut and thrust of democratic politics. Consequently, as a result of unspecified but allegedly scandalous allegations against him, Lyle-Samuel had issued writs against the National News and against both his Conservative opponent, Colonel French and his agent, Mr Alfred Pretty. The accusations against the National News later surfaced in court. Lyle-Samuel complained that the paper had reported that he had married his first wife solely for her money, that he had then tricked her of her money, deserted her, driven her mad and left her to die in a lunatic asylumHistory of psychiatric institutions
The story of the rise of the lunatic asylum and its gradual transformation into, and eventual replacement by, the modern psychiatric hospital, is also the story of the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry...
(sic). It was also alleged that he had married his second wife also for her money and that he had then engaged in a company promoting transactions of a dishonest character. The newspaper had relied on an unnamed informant to source their story and the legal precedents of the day gave the papers a lot of leeway as to how far they were required to verify such disclosures. In a judgment which made it plain that the newspaper probably should have checked the source more closely, the judges in the Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
nevertheless found that they had not acted outside the law and dismissed Lyle-Samuel’s appeal. Lyle-Samuel appealed again to the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
.
The case came back to court in December 1919, the Lord Chief Justice
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
hearing the matter sitting with a special jury. The judgment of the Lord Chief Justice was that the defendants had had no evidence to substantiate their allegations against Lyle-Samuel or to claim that was unfit to be a Member of Parliament. He also found that French and Pretty had made no effort to enquire into the truth of the charges they had heard against Lyle-Samuel before arranging for them to be published in the press. The jury found for Lyle-Samuel, awarding damages in the sum of £500. However one of the jurors wished it to be recorded that he had had great difficulty arriving at a verdict. The office of the Lord Chief Justice was at the time of trial held by Lord Reading
Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, PC, KC , was an English lawyer, jurist and politician...
. Reading was a former Liberal MP and Cabinet Minister, close to Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
. There is no evidence that he approached the Lyle-Samuel case, the action of a political colleague, with anything other than the proper judicial detachment. The publishers, who were by now in different ownership than at the time of publication, later withdrew their pleas of justification, i.e. their claim that what they had published was true and agreed to pay Lyle-Samuel £525 to cover costs.
Later life
Lyle-Samuel’s fortunes did not improve after he left ParliamentParliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
. He had always had close connections with the USA and he now went to live in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1928 debts he had built up in Britain got so large that his affairs were put into the hands of the Official Receiver
Official Receiver
An officer of the Insolvency Service of the United Kingdom, the Official Receiver is an officer of the court to which he is attached. The OR is therefore answerable to the courts for carrying out the courts' orders and for fulfilling his duties under law...
. At this time he was described as residing at a hotel on East 54th Street and of being without occupation or in possession of any assets in Britain. As noted above, his personal life was also filled with tragedy when his son, Winstone, was involved in a bobsleighing accident in Switzerland and died of his injuries at the age of 23 years.
Lyle-Samuel died in New York in 1942.