Frank Lee Pyman, 1882-1944

Frank Lee Pyman was born at Malvern on 9 April 1882 and died on 1 January 1944 after a prolonged illness bravely and cheerfully borne. His grandfather, George Pyman, J.P., of Raithwaite Hall, Whitby, was a self-made man of the sea, of Scandinavian extraction one or two generations back. George Pyman spent his early years on the ocean; later he owned a steamer and eventually a fleet of boats, the firm controlling them being known as George Pyman & Co. of West Hartlepool. George was a talented and capable business man who founded shipping firms for his sons in various ports; Frank and Fred were put in charge of Pyman Bros of London, Jack was put into the firm of Pyman, Watson & Co., and James went to Newcastle-on-Tyne and Hull to join Pyman, Bell & Co. The combined fleets of these firms in the period before the first World War of 1914 were one of the greatest family tramp concerns in the country. George’s fifth son, Francis-(but usually known as Frank and father of Frank Lee Pyman), was born in 1854 and was a man of great ability. He shone at school at West Hartlepool as a boy and later (1869), at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, took the Lord Provost’s Medal in Greek, one in French and a special prize for proficiency in the Greek Testament. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1874, and turned from classics to law, winning firstclass honours in the Law Tripos in 1877. In 1878 he graduated in honours, B.A. and LL.B., becoming M.A. in 1881. He began to qualify for the Bar, but gave this up to devote himself to his shipping concern. This interest was, however, apparently short-lived, for he took to politics, being a keen liberal, but overworked himself in this sphere. After a visit to Egypt and the East he returned to politics and acted as private secretary to Lord Rosebery in 1887, and in 1892 contested Whitby in the liberal interest. His health again gave way under the strain and he lived in prolonged retirement, dying eventually at the advanced age of eighty-seven years.