The death of Charles Hyland on February 6th last brought a deep and very personal feeling of loss to many, and most particularly to members of the legal profession. Few have served their calling more sincerely than he did and few solicitors have, over so many decades, commanded such affection and respect, not alone from clients and friends, but also from those who found themselves, as lawyers often do, on opposing teams.
Charles was born in Dublin in 1915 his father, Charles Hachette Hyland, was a distinguished dental surgeon who lived and practised from the family home in Percy Place. Charles senior was one of those who gave medical assistance to combatants on both sides in the Mount Street Bridge and Beggars Bush area in Easter Week 1916 and paid dearly for his compassion when he died having been caught in cross fire near his home.
After a brief period at Belvedere College, Charles attended Presentation College, Bray, where in 1930 he was a member of the junior rugby team which won the Leinster Cup. He maintained his interest in sport, and rugby in particular, throughout his life and no one was more pleased to see his old school win the same cup again in 1975. Later he played for Greystones Rugby Club which was then in the junior division. Subsequently he became club president and an honoured guest at the dinner which hailed the club's elevation to senior ranks.
Having graduated from UCD, Charles qualified as a solicitor in 1938 and for several years remained in private practice before becoming law agent for Irish Life Assurance Company in 1952. For almost three decades he remained at the helm and it was in that role that many of his colleagues will remember him a superb lawyer of great integrity, whose own sets of Irish precedents, put together when Irish legal publications were few and far between, led many to seek his advice and readily given comments. He was a practitioner who relished the mental challenge of a problem and who delighted in discussing a positive solution often accompanied by one of his pithy comments in lighter vein. His clients will remember his kindly approach on a personal level while "fair and firm" was often the verdict from the busy legal world. Such an approach to life and work made Charles a most welcome and esteemed participant in private practice to which he returned as a consultant in the years after his formal retirement from Irish Life.
If on a first meeting one felt that Charles was retiring by nature this was but one facet of his character. Better acquaintance led to the realisation that he was not simply a quiet and capable individual. His widespread interests included a passion for music and a love of hill walking to name but two. One of his comments concerning walking expeditions in the countryside was that although one tended to get tired it was less exhausting than square bashing he was a staunch member of the LDF in the 1940s. In company, his lighter touch and sure sense of timing could make conversation a delight coupled with the later realisation that his gifts were not limited to the quill and paperwork.
His concern for others, particularly those in difficulty, is perhaps best shown by the time he devoted to the Solicitors' Benevolent Association. He was a director of that body for over 30 years and indeed when he felt, having reached four score years, that he should retire, he was promptly asked to cancel his resignation letter and so he continued in office right up to the time of his death. His profession was one he graced with honour and distinction and for some years he was a council member of the Law Society and he was a former and popular past president of the Dublin Solicitors' Bar Association.
Charles and his wife celebrated their 45th anniversary in 1995. Our deepest sympathy must go to Phil on losing such a staunch and devoted friend of many years with whom he shared so many of his varied interests. He will long be mourned by those in the profession he loved and his many friends.