However, the convictions of Lyons and the other members of the Guinness Four were upheld by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and the House of Lords.
[2] While there, war was declared and Lyons could not return to the UK so he enlisted in the Canadian army but because of his poor eyesight, he was confined to working in the Board of Trade.
He met his future wife, singer Roslyn Rosenbaum, in Canada, and, in 1944, he became an assistant director of the country's Prices and Trade Board.
[3] Returning to Leeds in 1945 he and his brother Bernard contributed considerably to the growth of the family business with the expansion of branches and the development of a lucrative export division during the early post-war period.
This enabled the business to grow rapidly into a large conglomerate of companies called United Drapery Stores, or UDS.
[citation needed] Within Allders alone growth continued throughout the 1970s to such an extent that in 1976 it became the third largest department store in the country, beaten only by Harrods and Selfridges.
[2] Lyons was accused of having used his personal friendship with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to ensure the Guinness brewing group's offer for Distillers in 1986 was approved by the Office of Fair Trading.
Lawyers for the Guinness Four said their clients had lost their right to silence because they were compelled to give evidence to Department of Trade and Industry inspectors.
[citation needed] A third appeal in 2001 held by the European Court of Human Rights had ruled that the defendants were denied a fair trial by being compelled in law to provide potentially self-incriminatory information to Department of Trade and Industry inspectors which was then used as primary evidence against them.
At the time of the court of human rights verdict, Lyons said: "I welcome this judgment so that I may yet be able to enjoy a little of my retirement without the cloud of injustice hanging over me."
Lyons also funded a recording of the Anthem of Europe (the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony) in 1972 under conductor Carlo Maria Giulini.
Lyons also served as deputy chairman of the Fanfare for Europe cultural programme that marked the United Kingdom's membership of the European Economic Community in 1973.
[7] The couple's first child was born in Canada, and they moved to England at the end of World War II; they later had two sons and two daughters.