Lieutenant-Colonel Noel Anthony Scawen Lytton, 4th Earl of Lytton, OBE (7 April 1900 – 18 January 1985), was a British Army officer, Arabian horse fancier (of the Crabbet Arabian Stud) and writer.^[2]

Quick Facts Member of the House of Lords, Preceded by ...

Lieutenant-Colonel The Right Honourable The Earl of Lytton OBE
Lytton in 1924
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office 9 February 1951 – 18 January 1985
Preceded by	The 3rd Earl of Lytton
Succeeded by	The 5th Earl of Lytton
Personal details
Born	Noel Anthony Scawen Bulwer-Lytton[1] 7 April 1900 Chelsea, London
Died	18 January 1985(1985-01-18) (aged 84) Crawley, Sussex
Spouse	Clarissa Mary Palmer ​ ​ (m. 1946)​
Children	5
Parent(s)	Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth
Alma mater	Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Other titles	17th Baron Wentworth 5th Baron Lytton 5th Baronet (of Knebworth)
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Army
Years of service	1939–1945
Rank	Lieutenant-Colonel
Unit	Rifle Brigade
Battles/wars	World War II

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Lytton was born in 1900, the son of Neville Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton, and his wife, Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth, who later divorced. He was a descendant of the poet and adventurer Lord Byron (1788–1824), via his daughter Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), arguably the world's first computer programmer. Her daughter Anne Blunt (1837–1917) was Noel's maternal grandmother. He wrote a memoir of her husband, his grandfather, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. He was also a great-grandson of the author and politician Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

In 1925, Lytton and his sister Anne changed their surname to Lytton-Milbanke by deed poll,^[3] in honour of Noel's mother's succession to the Wentworth barony, which could pass to either of them. They both later went back to Lytton (and not Bulwer-Lytton).^[4][5]

Lytton was raised just east of the Sussex town of Crawley, in the mansion built by his maternal grandparents on the grounds of their renowned horse breeding establishment, the Crabbet Arabian Stud. He was educated at Downside School and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned in the Rifle Brigade. He later taught economics there in the 1930s.

In the time between the World Wars, he served "as an administrator and keeper of the peace in the area around Lake Rudolph in Kenya".^[6]

When the British entered the Second World War, he was posted by the military to North Africa and Italy, but due to an automobile accident was invalided out to desk duty, which his son describes as extremely frustrating for someone who was used to being athletic and active. He served as administrator of the Patras District from 1944 to 1945. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his service in 1945.^[2][7]

As part of government administration, Lytton eventually went to Yugoslavia to work with Josip Broz Tito's Partisans.^[6]

While in Yugoslavia, Lytton met Clarissa Palmer, a daughter of brigadier general Cyril Eustace Palmer.^[6] They married on 30 November 1946 and had five children:^[8]

• Lady Caroline Mary Noel Lytton (29 December 1947 – 22 August 2017), a silversmith.^[8]
• John Peter Michael Scawen Lytton, 5th Earl of Lytton (born 7 June 1950), married Ursula Komoly, a daughter of Anton Komoloy of Vienna, in 1985. They have three children.^[8]
• Hon. Thomas Roland Cyril Lawrence Lytton (born 10 August 1954)^[8]
• Lady Lucy Mary Frances Lytton (born 29 January 1957)^[8]
• Lady Sarah Teresa Mary Lytton (born 15 October 1959), married P. David Nash Solly in 1984.^[8] They have 2 children:
  • Isabelle Kate Solly (born 1992)
  • Benedict Edward Solly (born 1995)

Noel Lytton succeeded his father as Earl of Lytton in 1951, and his mother as Baron Wentworth in 1957. Both titles passed to his eldest son upon his death in 1985.^[2]

• The Desert and the Green (1957)
• Wilfrid Scawen Blunt: A Memoir (1961)
• Mickla Bendore (1962)
• Lucia in Taormina (1963)
• The Stolen Desert (1966)