Ivan Lyon
| Ivan Lyon | |
|---|---|
Major Ivan Lyon in 1943
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| Born | 17 August 1915 |
| Died | 16 October 1944 (aged 29) Soreh Island, Riau, Indonesia |
| Buried | Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1935–1944 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Commands held | Z Special Unit |
| Battles/wars |
Second World War |
| Awards |
Distinguished Service Order Member of the Order of the British Empire |
Second World War
Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Lyon, DSO, MBE (17 August 1915 – 16 October 1944) was a British soldier and military intelligence agent during the Second World War. As a member of Z Special Unit Lyon took part in a number of commando operations against the Japanese and was killed during Operation Rimau while attempting to infiltrate Singapore harbour and destroy Japanese shipping there in 1944.
Born on 17 August 1915, Lyon was the second son of Brigadier General Francis Lyon, Royal Artillery, a senior British Army general staff officer during the First World War and the grandson of Colonel Francis Lyon, Royal Horse Artillery, who had fought in the Indian Mutiny. He was educated at Harrow and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and in 1935 was commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders before being posted to Singapore in 1936. While there, Lyon spent much of his spare time sailing around South East Asia. In 1939, he married Gabrielle Bouvier, the daughter of a French official in French Indochina, and fathered a son, Clive.
In mid-1940 Indochina became controlled by Vichy France and was occupied by the Empire of Japan later that year. As the prospect of war between the Allies and Japan loomed, Lyon undertook covert operations with Free French sympathisers in Indochina. After Japan invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941, Lyon's wife and son found themselves behind enemy lines and they spent the war in Japanese internment after the ship they were travelling on was intercepted by a German raider and they were taken prisoner. As the Japanese advanced towards Singapore, Lyon worked to form resistance groups among the local population. Later, he evacuated civilians from Singapore by boat, until its fall to the Japanese, in February 1942. During this period he met an Australian named Bill Reynolds, who operated a small ship called Kofuku Maru.
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