Thomas Ranken Lyle

Thomas Ranken Lyle

Sir Thomas Lyle F.R.S.
Full name	Thomas Ranken Lyle
Date of birth	(1860-08-26)26 August 1860
Place of birth	Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland
Date of death	31 March 1944(1944-03-31) (aged 83)
Place of death	South Yarra, Australia
University	Trinity College, Dublin
Notable relative(s)	Dame Mary Herring (daughter)
Occupation(s)	Mathematical physicist
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Forward
Amateur clubs Years Club / team       Dublin University Football Club
National team(s) Years Club / team Apps (points) 1885–1887  Ireland 5 (0)

National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Apps	(points)
1885–1887	Ireland	5	(0)

Sir Thomas Ranken Lyle FRS (26 August 1860 – 31 March 1944) was an Irish-Australian mathematical physicist, radiologist, educator, and rugby player.

Lyle was born and educated in Ireland before emigrating to Australia to take up a professorship at the University of Melbourne. There he was a pioneer in the use of X-rays as a medical tool. The Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal is awarded in his name to honour Australian achievements in Physics and Mathematics.

In his earlier years in Ireland he was a rugby union forward of some note, who played club rugby for Dublin University and international rugby for Ireland.

Lyle was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland in 1860, the second son of Hugh Lyle, a well-to-do landowner. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1883 with full honours and student medals for his work in mathematics and physics. He received his MA in 1887, and continued his studies in advanced physics and mathematics. By 1889 he had emigrated to Australia, and at the age of 29, took up the position of the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Melbourne. In 1891 a Master of Science was introduced at the University, and Thomas Lyle used the opportunity to set up a small research program.

In 1892 he married Frances Isobel Clare Millear, the daughter of a prominent Western District grazier, and the two set up home in a professorial house provided by the University. They had four children; Mary, Nancy, Thomas and Clare. Their first child, Mary Ranken Lyle (born in 1894), became a notable physician, and married Edmund Herring in 1922.