Abram Lyle (14 December 1820 – 30 April 1891) is noted for founding the sugar refiners '' Abram Lyle & Sons'' which merged with the company of his rival

Henry Tate Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet (11 March 18195 December 1899) was an English sugar merchant and philanthropist, noted for establishing the Tate Gallery in London. Life and career Born in White Coppice, a hamlet near Chorley, Lancashire, Tate wa ...

to become

Tate & Lyle Tate & Lyle PLC is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage ingredients to industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s it began to diversify, eventually divesting its sugar business i ...

in 1921.

Early life

He was born on 14 December 1820 in the

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

, Renfrewshire, in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, and at twelve years old became an apprentice in a lawyer's office. He then joined his father's

cooper Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: * Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels Arts and entertainment * Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * Cooper (video game character), in ...

age businesses and in partnership with a friend, John Kerr, developed a shipping business, making the Lyle fleet one of the largest in Greenock. The area was heavily involved in the sugar trade with the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, and his business included transporting sugar.

Sugar refining

Together with four partners he purchased the sugar house of the defunct ''Greenock Sugar Refining Company'' in 1865, forming the ''Glebe Sugar Refinery Company'', and so added sugar refining to his other business interests. When John Kerr, the principal partner, died in 1872, Lyle sold his shares and began the search for a site for a new refinery. Together with his three sons he bought two wharves at Plaistow in East London in 1881 to construct a refinery for producing golden syrup. The site happened to be around from the sugar refinery of his rival,

. In the first year Lyle's refinery showed a loss of £30,000, with economies being made by asking staff to wait for their wages on occasion, but eventually the business came to dominate the United Kingdom market for golden syrup. ;Out of the strong came forth sweetness The brand, sold in a distinctive green and gold lidded tin with an image of a lion surrounded by bees, is believed to be Britain's oldest. The design of the tin decoration, which includes a biblical quotation, has remained almost unchanged since 1885. In the

Book of Judges The Book of Judges (, ') is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom i ...

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

was travelling to the land of the Philistines in search of a wife. During the journey he killed a lion, and on his return past the same spot he noticed that a swarm of bees had formed a comb of honey in the carcass. Samson later turned this into a riddle at a wedding: "Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness". () While no one is sure why this particular quotation was chosen, it has been suggested that it refers either to the strength of the Lyle company which delivers the sweet syrup or possibly even to the trademark tins in which the syrup was sold. Sugar refineries belonging to

continued as a major industry in Greenock (but with difficulties) until the 1980s, then declining sugar consumption and a shift away from

cane sugar Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

led to closure of the last refinery in 1997. There is still a warehouse that was used in the past to store sugar in the town's ''Ocean Terminal''.

Personal life and public office

Lyle was the son of Abram Lyle and Mary Campbell. He married Mary Park, daughter of William Park, on 14 December 1846 and the couple had five sons and one daughter: * Abram Lyle (6 October 1847) * Sir Alexander Park Lyle, 1st Bt., (2 August 1849 – 10 December 1933) * Charles Lyle, (1851 – 13 June 1929) * Mary Lyle (1 March 1855 – 6 April 1927) * John Lyle (9 March 1857) * Sir Robert Park Lyle, 1st and last Bt., (17 October 1859 – 11 July 1923) An elder of St Michael's

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

in Greenock, Lyle himself chose the biblical quotation for the syrup tins. He was a pious man and a strict

teetotaller Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of total personal abstinence from the psychoactive drug alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler or teetotaller, or is ...

, who once declared that he would "rather see a son of his carried home dead than drunk". Lyle was Provost of Greenock from 1876 to 1879. In late 1878, to help the

unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...

during the

Long Depression The Long Depression was a worldwide price and economic recession, beginning in 1873 and running either through March 1879, or 1896, depending on the metrics used. It was most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing st ...

, the

Police Board A police board is an appointed form of local government charged with the responsibility of overseeing a local police force. In the United States, the term is used for some police departments. For example, the Chicago Police Board oversees the Chi ...

provided work building a scenic road to a viewpoint known as the Craigs or Bingens. In January 1879 the Streets Committee named it Lyle Road, and after it was formally opened on 1 May 1880, the name

Lyle Hill Lyle Hill stands at the West End of Greenock in Inverclyde, Scotland. It has scenic viewpoints accessible from Lyle Road, which was constructed in 1879–1880 and named after Provost Abram Lyle, well known as a sugar refiner. The hill's hi ...

came into use. Lyle died on 30 April 1891. He has a large memorial in Greenock Cemetery.

Notes

;Footnotes ;Citations

Bibliography

;References * * * * * * * * * (

Inverclyde Inverclyde ( sco, Inerclyde, gd, Inbhir Chluaidh, , "mouth of the Clyde") is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Together with the East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire council areas, Inverclyde forms part of the histo ...

Council website) ;Further reading * * * *

External links