Editing Joseph Lyons (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Lyonsfamily.jpg|thumb|left|The Lyons family in the 1930s on the lawn of [[The Lodge (Australia)|The Lodge]]]]
On 28 April 1915, Lyons married [[Enid Lyons|Enid Burnell]], the daughter of a family friend; she was almost 18 years his junior.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=95}} He had begun courting her in 1912, when she was 15.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|p=85}} The couple had twelve children together:
# Gerald Desmond (1916–2000)
# Sheila Mary Norma (1918–2000)
# Enid Veronica (1919–1988) – married army officer [[Maurice Austin]]
# Kathleen Patricia (1920–2012)
# Moira Rose (1922–1991)
# [[Kevin Lyons|Kevin Orchard]] (1923–2000)
# Garnet Philip Burnell (1924–1925)
# [[Brendan Lyons|Brendan Aloysius]] (1927–2010)
# Barry Joseph (1928–2015)
# Rosemary Josephine (1929–1999)
# Peter Julian (1931–2021)
# Janice Mary (1933–2020)

Several years after Lyons's death, his widow Enid also embarked on a political career, becoming the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and serving in cabinet in the post-war [[Menzies Government (1949–66)|Menzies Government]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/lyons/spouse.aspx|title=Australia's PMs > Joseph Lyons > Enid Lyons|publisher=National Archives of Australia|access-date=2 April 2019|archive-date=8 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408175445/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/lyons/spouse.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref> Their sons Kevin and Brendan entered Tasmanian politics, becoming state government ministers several decades after their father's death.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1516/ParlRel|title= Parliamentary relations: political families in the Commonwealth Parliament|publisher=Parliament of Australia|date=9 November 2015|access-date=2 April 2019}}</ref> Their grandchildren include [[Libby Lyons]], director of the [[Workplace Gender Equality Agency]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nowtolove.com.au/women-of-the-future/the-weekly/libby-lyons-reducing-the-gender-pay-gap-48661|title= Libby Lyons: 'Reducing the gender pay gap will transform our work and family lives'|magazine=[[The Australian Women's Weekly]]|date=23 May 2018|access-date=2 April 2019}}</ref> and [[Kevin Lyons (judge)|Kevin Lyons Jr.]], who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2018.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.vicbar.com.au/news-events/appointment-kevin-lyons-qc|title=Appointment – Kevin Lyons QC|date=22 May 2018|access-date=31 January 2019|publisher=Victorian Bar}}</ref>

Before his marriage, Lyons had briefly been engaged to Pearl "Pib" Bailey, whom he met while teaching at [[Conara, Tasmania|Conara]] in about 1902. He broke off their relationship for reasons unknown, but they remained firm friends; Bailey never married and kept the love letters they exchanged for the rest of her life.{{sfn|Henderson|2011|pp=35–41}}

In 2018, a Jim Starkey who is married to Wendy Starkey, a great-granddaughter of another former prime minister Billy Hughes, claimed to be the great-grandson of Lyons.<ref name="pmd">{{cite web |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/prime-ministers-descendants-descend-on-canberra-20180606-p4zjtu.html |title=Prime ministers' descendants descend on Canberra |last=Brown |first=Andrew |date=9 June 2018 |website=smh.com.au |publisher=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] |access-date=27 October 2021 }}</ref>

However, Starkey's claim of familial relations with Lyons has been disputed by the Lyons family and Lyons biographer Anne Henderson.<ref name="jlb">{{cite web |url=https://www.examiner.com.au/story/6105550/joseph-lyons-biographer-rubbishes-state-uap-candidates-ancestry-claim/ |title=Joseph Lyons biographer rubbishes state United Australia Party candidate Jim Starkey's ancestry claim |last=Inglis|first=Rob |date=3 May 2019 |website=The Examiner |publisher=Australian Community Media |access-date=27 October 2021 }}</ref>