Biography
Lanyon was born in Eastbourne, Sussex (now East Sussex) in 1813. His father was John Jenkinson Lanyon, a purser in the Royal Navy, and his mother was Catherine Anne Mortimer.
Following his education, he became an apprentice civil engineer with Jacob Owen in Portsmouth. When Owen was made senior Engineer and Architect of the Irish Board of Works and moved to Dublin, Lanyon followed. In 1835 he married Owens' daughter, Helen Elizabeth. They had ten children, including Sir William Owen Lanyon, an army officer and colonial administrator. Charles Lanyon was County Surveyor in Kildare briefly, before moving on to Antrim in 1836. He remained County Surveyor of Antrim until 1860 when he resigned from the post to concentrate on private work and other interests.
Lanyon was elected Mayor of Belfast in 1862, and Conservative MP for the city between 1865 and 1868. In 1868 he was also knighted and served on the Select Committee on Scientific Instruction, which laid the groundwork for the Education Act for Universal Education of 1871.
He lost his seat in Westminster, but became a councillor in Belfast Town Council from 1861 to 1871. From 1862 to 1886 he was Belfast Harbour Commissioner. He served as Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim and was appointed High Sheriff of Antrim in 1876. He was also a Justice of the Peace for many years.
His other business interests included being director of the Blackstaff Flax Spinning Company and chairman of several railway companies. He was made director of the Northern Counties Railway in 1870, but resigned in 1887 because of ill-health. Alongside his business activities he was an active Freemason and even became the Grand Master of Freemasons in Ireland.
Lanyon lived at 'The Abbey' a grand house in Whiteabbey, which eventually became a sanitorium during World War I and is now part of Whiteabbey Hospital. He died there on 31 May 1889 and is buried in Newtownbreda graveyard. His will is recorded in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland:
8th August 1889, LANYON, Sir Charles, Effects £53,785 1s 3d. The will (with 5 codiciles) of Sir Charles Lanyon, late of the Abbey, Whiteabbey, Co. Antrim, Knight, to died 31st May 1889 at the same place, was proved at Belfast by John Lanyon of Lisbreen, Fortwilliam Park Belfast, CE Herbert Owen Lanyon or Castletown Terrace, Belfast, Merchant, and Elizabeth Helen Lanyon of the Abbey, Whiteabbey, Spinster.
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