Noel Lytton, 4th Earl of Lytton

Lytton was born in 1900, the son of Neville Stephen Bulwer-Lytton, 3rd Earl of Lytton and his wife, Judith Blunt-Lytton, who later divorced. He was a descendant of the poet and adventurer Lord Byron (born 1788), via his daughter Ada Lovelace (born 1815), arguably the world's first computer programmer. Her daughter Anne Blunt (born 1837) was Noel's maternal grandmother. He is 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 Barony of Wentworth, 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 Royal Military Academy 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, he met Clarissa Palmer, a daughter of Brigadier-General Cyril Eustace Palmer.[6] Lytton and Clarissa were married on 30 November 1946. They were the parents of five children:[8]

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

Noel Lytton succeeded his father as the 4th Earl of Lytton in 1951, and his mother as 17th 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)