MISS Charlotte Lyon, the grand old lady of Scottish women's golf, has died at Inchmarlo House nursing home, Banchory. She would have been 105 years old in May.
Born in 1895, when Queen Victoria still had six years left to reign, Charlotte was the eighth child of Sir Alexander Lyon, Lord Provost of Aberdeen from 1905 to 1908. It was during the Edwardian years that young Charlotte learned to play golf at Aboyne where her wealthy parents had a summer home.
Charlotte joined Aberdeen Ladies' Golf Club in 1913 and served as the club's secretary for 51 years, from 1921 to 1972. In 1956 she was made the first honorary member in the club's history, and at the same time Royal Aberdeen Golf Club gave her the courtesy of the Balgownie links for life.
In 1931, when Aberdeen Ladies made a presentation to Charlotte to mark her first 10 years as secretary, club captain Mrs B M Brunt was quoted in the local paper: ''Only those who know the work involved could adequately appraise the labour entailed. Everything Miss Lyon arranged went like clockwork.''
That brief tribute gives an inkling of Charlotte's skill and dedication as a golf official and it is no surprise that over the years she was offered and accepted many time-consuming but honorary administrative posts.
A formidable player as well as a gifted administrator and organiser, she was club champion five times, the last occasion being in 1959 when, aged 64, she also reached the quarter-finals of the Scottish women's championship at Nairn.
Charlotte played 158 times for Aberdeenshire in inter-county matches between 1920 and 1956 and was president of the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association from 1963 to 1965. She had been one of the select group of SLGA vice-presidents since then.
Miss Lyon was secretary of the Northern Division of the Scottish Veteran Ladies Golf Association for 29 years and president of Aberdeenshire Ladies County Golf Association from 1962 to 1965.
A three-handicap player in the 1930s, when not many female golfers in Scotland had single-figure handicaps, Charlotte set many North-east women's course records at her peak.
Miss Lyon played with and against all the big names of Scottish women's golf, including Helen Holm, Jessie Valentine, and Jean Donald.
''I much preferred matchplay to strokeplay but I was always petrified when I came up against somebody as good as that,'' said Charlotte in an interview a few years ago. ''I don't think I was ever disgraced but I was never long enough off the tee to be an international team contender. My short game sometimes compensated.'' Charlotte had 12 putts, and only 24 in all, when, at the age of 55, she set a Banchory women's course record of 71.
''I was short but very straight off the tee and I very seldom lost a golf ball. In fact, I can remember the day and the date I did lose a ball once.
It was at Peterhead and I could walk straight to that spot even now.'' And, with a twinkle in her eye, she leaned forward: ''But I don't suppose I would find it after all this time.''
She remembered when women always played golf with a hat on - and it took a long time for trousers to be accepted as ''proper'' attire for ladies. Even after the ''rules'' were relaxed so that they could be worn for golf, it was still skirts-only in the Aberdeen Ladies' clubhouse.
Charlotte could recall when ''gentlemen were definitely not allowed in the Aberdeen Ladies' clubhouse at all. It was a considerable concession when they were permitted to come down from the Royal Aberdeen clubhouse to tea once a week.''
But there was no ban on the sexes mixing out on the golf course and Charlotte had many rounds at Balgownie in the company of a young Aberdeen University medical student, William Tweddell, later Dr Tweddell, who went on to win the British Amateur Championship in 1927 and gain Walker Cup honours.
Miss Lyon had many golf lessons from Perth professional Joe Anderson, father of Jessie Valentine, when he used to spend the summer months as a teaching professional at Braemar, to where the Lyon family had moved their summer residence from Aberdeen.
''Lottie will be remembered for all her achievements and as a remarkable lady whose trophies are played for at national, county and club level. She was a lively old lady who laughingly fascinated us with many stories of golf and life in the earlier years of the twentieth century. She will be remembered with affection by all who knew her,'' said Aberdeenshire Ladies' captain Margaret MacNaughtan.
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