Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall GCIE, KCB, PC, FBA (4 January 1835 – 10 April 1911) was a British civil servant, literary historian and poet.

His elder brother, James Broadwood Lyall, was already serving in India, and this may have influenced him towards a career in that direction.

He died while on a sojourn to Farringford House, the family home of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in Freshwater, Isle of Wight.

[1] After Eton and Haileybury, Lyall joined the Indian Civil Service in 1856, and served a long career in India.

His next post was as Foreign Secretary to Government of India from 1878 to 1881 (during this period he helped negotiate peace and a monarchy in Afghanistan).

He was, in the opinion of Crispin Bates, "one of the more programmatic of nineteenth century writers on Indian history" and his writings on the subject are "somewhat dubious".

[3] Another historian, Clive Dewey, believes that Lyall was generally recognised as one of the most brilliant civilians of his generation; he retired, after a dazzling career, as governor of the United Provinces.

A more comprehensive list of his known publications is given below: Lyall married Cornelia Arnoldina Cloete (c. 1836 – 1913) at Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk on 12 November 1862.

His brother James Broadwood Lyall (1838–1916) also served in the Indian Civil Service, becoming Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab.