Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall (1835-1911) was a British civil servant, literary historian and poet. He joined the Indian Civil Service in 1856, and served a long career in India. He went on to become Home Secretary to the Government of India in 1873 and the Governor-General’s agent in the state of Rajputana the following year. His next post was as Foreign Secretary to the Government of India from 1878 to 1881. He was then appointed Lieutenant-Governor of North West Provinces, and Chief Commissioner of Oudh from 1882 to 1887. His Verses Written in India was published in 1889. He wrote a number of other books on poetry, Indian history, Warren Hastings, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. His literary achievements brought him advanced degrees, a D. C.L. from Oxford (1889) and an LL. D. from Cambridge (1891), an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge (1893), and membership in the British Academy (1902). His works include: Asiatic Studies (1st series) (1882), Warren Hastings (1889), The Rise and Expansion of the British Dominion in India (1893), Asiatic Studies (2nd series) (1899), Tennyson (1902), and Studies in Literature and History (1915).