J. B. Lyons

Who was J. B. Lyons?

John Benignus Lyons, better known as J. B. Lyons and widely known as Jack Lyons, was an Irish medical historian, writer, physician and professor of medicial history. He was described as "one of the foremost Irish medical writers of the twentieth century".

Born in Kilkelly, County Mayo, his father was a dispensary doctor. His first school was the Kilkelly National School, followed by boarding school in Castleknock College, near Dublin. He went on to study medicine at University College Dublin. He first worked in Dublin hospitals, including Mater Hospital and the County Hospital in Castlebar, and then moved to England. He achieved the Doctor of Medicine and in 1949 he was made a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He then left to become a ship's doctor on a cargo liner sailing to Japan and South America. On his return to land, Lyons settled in Manchester, England, where he met, and in 1950 married, a Welsh nurse, Muriel Jones. In 1955, they and their three children, David, Kate and Jane, moved to Dalkey, just outside Dublin, and Lyons became the consultant physician at St. Michael's Hospital in Dun Laoghaire and then in 1959 became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1959, he became consultant physician at Mercer's Hospital, Dublin.