Lyon was educated at a private school called Highstead in Torquay, Devon and at Trinity College, Cambridge.
[2] As a cricketer, he played in six first-class matches over three seasons, five for Cambridge University and one for a "Gentlemen of the North" side for whom he made his highest score of 22.
He played a lot of amateur non-first-class cricket for teams such as Free Foresters through to the 1880s and beyond.
[1] Lyon graduated from Cambridge University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1864.
[5] Tutbury being sited on the county boundary, Lyon was a Justice of the Peace for both Staffordshire and Derbyshire.