According to his daughter Anna Campbell Lyle, "On the day, in fact at the very hour, that Father was dying in a car crash on a lonely road in Portugal, I was buying a black coat at Simpson's in Piccadilly. It was 3:30 in the afternoon of the 23rd of April 1957 - the birthday and, according to tradition, also the death day of Shakespeare. The car my parents were travelling in, a small Fiat 300, had one very worn Tyre. Mary, my mother, who did all the driving, thought she had had this Tyre put at the back, but the mechanic made a mistake when servicing the car, and put it in front of the right hand side where my father sat. He was a big man and under his weight the tyre which had held out since Seville burst, and the car crashed into a tree on a lonely road near Setubal, south of Lisbon. Both my parents were knocked unconscious instantly. Father was driven to a hospital at Setubal by some people who passed shortly after the accident. He died on the way, after murmuring some words and giving two deep sighs. Mother recovered after a long convalescence, but she was never the same, brave optimist again; though she did retain her sense of humour and enchantment. Certainly a part of her died with Father and she blamed herself for his death. This was nonsense; fate had joined them; fate had now separated them".