The Guernsey Lanyons are descended from the Helston branch of the family.
Samuel Lanyon was the son of Charles Francis Lanyon and Alice James, he was born in 1772 at Helston. He was a currier (a specialist leather worker) in Liskeard. Charles Francis fell out with his sons over his second marriage to Jane Sampson and this may explain why Samuel left Helston and moved to Liskeard. Samuel’s first wife, Mary Doney died in childbirth and their son Thomas Doney Lanyon died in 1827 at the age of 23.
Samuel married Ann Bennicke in 1806 at Stoke Damerel in Devon. They had seven children, the youngest being James George Lanyon born in 1823.
James George Lanyon 1823-1885
James was born in Liskeard but by 1851 he had moved to St Peter Port, the capital of Guernsey, and was working as a cordwainer.
The 1851 census shows him living with a wife, Elizabeth and with three children.
Elizabeth Mary Clothier was the daughter of William Clothier and Harriette Baptiste. She and James had six children:
- William James Lanyon 1850-1924
- Samuel George Lanyon 1851-1941
- Frederick Lanyon 1853-1922
- Florence Mary Lanyon 1854-1877
- Harriett Ann Lanyon 1855-1924
- Emily Lanyon 1857-1922
Elizabeth tragically drowned in a boating accident on a day trip to picnic in Herm, a tiny island next to Guernsey.
In 1861 James appears on the census as a widowed bootmaker, living with his mother-in-law.
Before 1869 James married Martha Anna (Hannah) Collings, they had seven children. the youngest born 31 years after his eldest child!
- Ernest James Lanyon 1869-1929
- Gertrude Elizabeth Bennicke Lanyon 1871-1961
- Annie Bennicke Lanyon 1873-
- Agnes Lanyon 1875-1962
- Harold St John Lanyon 1877-1951
- John Henry Lanyon 1880-1935
- Reginald Hubert Lanyon 1881-1944
The 1881 census shows them all living at 2 Kings Road, St Peter Port. The house must have been pretty crowded as there were two elderly lodgers as well!
On 20 Dec 1885 James died leaving his wife to care for their young family alone. She never remarried and finally died on 24 August 1923.
William James Lanyon 1850-1924
William was a typesetter and emigrated to New Jersey in 1867. His first marriage was to Mary Augusta Oliver on 7 Jun 1871 at New Jersey, USA.
They had four children:
- Mary Lanyon 1871-
- William Oliver Lanyon 1873-1939
- Harriet Lanyon 1875-
- James Lanyon 1878-
Mary Augusta died in 1890 and in 1891 (according to the 1900 census) William James married another Mary. I haven’t found this marriage so I don’t know her maiden name.
Samuel George Lanyon 1851-1941
Samuel George Lanyon was born in St Peter Port in 1851. On the 1881 census he was still living at home and working as a tailor but by 1891 he had married and was working as a postman.
He married Martha Julia Robin and they had two children, Frederick and Winifred.
Samuel appears on the 1921 census as a retired postman alongside his wife Martha. I have not found a date of death but some other family historians report that he died in 1941 in Ohio, USA.
Frederick Lanyon 1852-1923
Frederick was the third son of James George Lanyon and Elizabeth Clothier.
The 1871 census describes him as a carpenter. Sometime after 1871 he emigrated to New South Wales, Australia. There in 1889 he married Sarah Emily Radford (1854-1944) and they had two sons; Percy Frederick Lanyon 1891-1955 and Harold Edgar Lanyon 1894-1973.
He appears in the New South Wales Police Gazettes. It gives us a good description of him.
Ernest James Lanyon 1869-1929
Ernest was the eldest son of James George Lanyon’s second marriage to Martha Anna Collings.
He was born at St Peter Port in 1869 and by 1891 he was working as a compositer. By 1893 he had emigrated to America and married Helen Sullivan in New York. They had three children:
- Cecil Ernest Lanyon 1894-1918 Killed in action in France in August 1918
- Harold Collings Lanyon 1869-1959
- Dorothy Mable Lanyon 1898-1979
Harold St John Lanyon 1877-1951
Harold was born in 1877 by 1891 he was working as a gardener. Sometime before 1899 he married Celestine Ingrouille in Guernsey.
They had four children:
- Gertrude Emily Lanyon 1899-1981
- Harold James Lanyon 1901-
- Hubert Henry Lanyon 1903-1981
- John Lanyon 1912-1969
Reginald Hubert Lanyon 1881-1944
Reginald was born in 1881 and in 1915 he joined the navy as an able seaman. He served at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 on HMS Cochrane and was mentioned in dispatches.
He married Emily Rhoda Yabsley and they had two children: Earnest and Angela.
Hubert Henry Lanyon 1903-1981
Hubert was born in St Peter Port in 1903 the second son of Harold St John Lanyon and Celestine Ingrouille. On 14 May 1929 he married Marie de Renault. They had three children: Megan, Mark and Maisie. Hubert worked as a baker on the small island of Sark.
Hubert was active in the Channel Islands Underground during the second world war.
After the British and French Armies were evacuated from Dunkirk in May and June 1940, British authorities decided not to defend the Channel Islands. The Islands were demilitarised and thousands of Islanders tried to evacuate. In total, 17,000 out of 42,000 left Guernsey and 6,600 out of 50,000 left Jersey. 471 remained in Sark and around 20 people stayed in Alderney. On 28 June 1940, German air raids on St Peter Port and St Helier killed 34 and 11 civilians respectively. Between 30 June and 4 July 1940, the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark were occupied by German forces. Islanders had no idea how long the Occupation might last or how German rule would affect their lives.
During the Occupation, Frank Falla was invited to join an underground newspaper. After radios were confiscated in June 1942 and listening to the BBC made a severely punishable offence, Charles Machon, Falla’s colleague and typesetter at the Guernsey Star newspaper, decided to set up the news service. He had to be careful not to let each member of the group know who else was involved in case any of them were caught. The other members of the group were initially husband and wife team Joseph and Henrietta Gillingham, and Henrietta’s brother Ernest Legg. Later on, Frank Falla and Cecil Duquemin joined. It was Falla’s idea to name the news service GUNS (Guernsey Underground News Service). The newssheet was distributed throughout St Peter Port where all the members lived and further afield. It was also smuggled to Sark where baker Hubert Lanyon made it available to customers. The men were informed on and arrested. Henrietta’s brother and husband covered for her and she was not arrested. The five men were deported but Lanyon was fortunate to serve his sentence locally. (Guernsey Museum)
The Lanyons 