Lyall, David

David Lyall was born on 1 June 1817 at Kinkairdineshire, Scotland. He studied medicine at Aberdeen and was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh. In 1839, he joined the Royal Navy as a medical officer and naturalist, serving as assistant surgeon in HMS Terror on the British Naval Expedition, 1839-1843 (leader James Clark Ross), organized primarily to conduct a series of magnetic observations in the Southern Hemisphere. During this voyage, Lyall, Joseph Dalton Hooker and Robert McCormick made a worldwide collection of botanical specimens, including many from southern oceanic islands. On his return, Lyall served as assistant surgeon in several commissions in the Mediterranean until 1847, when he was promoted and selected as surgeon and naturalist in HMS Acheron on the survey of the coast of New Zealand.

In 1852, Lyall was appointed surgeon in HMS Assistance on the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1852-1854 (leader Sir Edward Belcher), sailing on a voyage to the regions of Wellington Channel and Melville Island in search of Sir John Franklin's missing Northwest Passage expedition. During the expedition, he made a valuable collection of Arctic flora in the Wellington Channel area.

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