The Hon. Michael Albemarle Bowes Lyon, who has died aged 83, was the younger brother of Fergus, the 17th Earl of Strathmore.
Known as Alby, his father was The Hon. Michael Bowes Lyon, one of the elder brothers of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, making him a first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1953, Alby was a page to HRH Princess Margaret at the Coronation.
Later in life he was a regular and popular guest of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park and Birkhall on the Balmoral Estate.
Born in Hertfordshire, Alby spent his earliest years in Bedfordshire where his father had retired after the war.
Affection for Angus
After his father’s death in 1953, his mother lived at The White House, Glamis. Alby greatly enjoyed spending school holidays there; the county of Angus and especially Glamis held a special place in his heart for the rest of his life.
Through his mother’s family, the Cators, he had links to Norfolk, another county he grew to love, especially through visits to his sisters, Lady Mary Colman and Lady Patricia Tetley, who both settled there.
Alby was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied
languages.
He spent a year in Vienna, learning to speak German fluently and acquiring
a life-long love of opera, especially Wagner.
He had a wide circle of friends on the Continent and enjoyed numerous visits to stay with them, go to the opera and explore cultural sites whose history or beauty had sparked his interest. He was an innate historian and had a prodigious memory.
He was a director of Coutts Bank from 1969 to 1993 and was an active participant in the
Elizabeth Finn charity.
Faith
Alby had a strong Christian faith and was a regular attender at communion on a Sunday for many years at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square, London, near his home in Whitehall. He also helped with the charity work there.
He never married but was devoted to his nieces and nephews and the wider family who
loved his mischievous sense of humour and his interest in their lives. His gentle demeanour and charm will be missed by all who knew him.
Alby was buried on November 9 2023 in the family burial ground at Glamis Castle, near his parents, his sister and his brother Fergus.
The family’s announcement can be read here.
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