Rowland Lyne was born in Lincoln in 1900, his birth registered in the first quarter of that year. The son of Thomas Lyne and Jane Vickerman, Rowland served in France during the First World War and worked with the YMCA stores near Rouen.
He entered the YMCA's training college, Mildmay, in April 1920 as a Physical Education student. During the First World War, the YMCA was confronted with the immediate need to train hundreds of workers to staff its welfare work at home and overseas. Over 1300 workers passed through Mildmay, which was located near Dalston, London, and included Anglican clergy, Free Church clergy, students, ex-officers and foreign missionaries. It became the headquarters for the training of both YMCA staff and social workers with special emphasis directed to Boys' Work and Physical Education. Personal appeals for funds to consolidate this work were addressed to prospective subscribers through the YMCA National Council's sphere of influence.
Lyne relocated to Singapore in the mid-1920s and became a long-serving General Secretary for the YMCA there. He became the Singapore representative to the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS), which was closely associated with the YMCA in Singapore, in 1925. He would later become President of the Singapore Branch of the RLSS following its formation on 16 August 1967.
During the Second World War, Lyne was a Prisoner of War, imprisoned by the Japanese for three years before his release in 1945. He was awarded the MBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List in 1956, for public services in Singapore.
He was married to Elsie Duncan (d 1968), founder of the First Singapore Company of the Girls' Life Brigade in 1927. She was one-time teacher at the Methodist Girls' School at Mount Sophia and later became a Justice of the Peace.
Rowland Lyne left Singapore in 1968. He relocated to Perth, Australia, where he was still living in June 1985.
Sources: 'History of Mildmay'; Free Births, Marriages and Deaths website accessed 5 December 2018 via www.freebmd.org.uk; Sport Singapore website accessed 5 December 2018 via https://www.sportsingapore.gov.sg/Sports-Education/History-of-Singapore-Sports/Sports-Clubs/YMCA; Social Networks and Archival Context website accessed 5 December 2018 via http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6zq1fw5; National Library Board, Singapore website accessed 5 December 2018 via http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/printheritage/image.aspx?id=56dbef6e-4bc5-43d7-a610-2f408d963a14; Singapore Life Saving Society website accessed 5 December 2018 via https://lifesavingsociety.weebly.com/about-slss.html
