He was the eldest (in surviving to adulthood) of fourteen children of the architect
Charles Lynam and his wife Lucy Emma. Charles Cotterill Lynam was educated at
King William's College on the
Isle of Man. After graduation, he worked for a short time in his father's office and then in 1879 won a scholarship to
Hertford College, Oxford. There he played for the Oxford varsity
chess team and the
rugby football team and graduated in 1882. During his university days, he cruised and sailed on the inland waters of the
River Thames. Charles C. Lynam enjoyed sailing and cruising and often invited friends and Dragon School's staff members to accompany him in yachting. He disliked being addressed as "Sir" and preferred to be called "Skipper". C. C. "Skipper" Lynam promoted subsidized tuition for talented students unable to pay the full tuition and served as the Dragon School's headmaster from 1886 to 1920, when he retired. The Dragon School was co-educational from the 1890s onwards, gained a considerable reputation for its freedoms, and was sometimes referred to as Lynam's preparatory school. In retirement, he was a keen sailor and world traveller. At age eighty, after recently returning from a voyage to
Australia, he embarked on a voyage from England to
Padang aboard
M. V. Alcinous (
Blue Funnel Line). On the outward voyage, he died of
angina and, according to his wishes, was buried at sea on 27 October 1938.
R. G. Collingwood, a fellow passenger, wrote a note of sympathy to Skipper Lynam's brother Alfred Edmund "Hum" Lynam (but did not mention that a
hammerhead shark and a carpenter's error nearly created an embarrassing situation). Frank Sidgwick (1879–1939), scholar, publisher, writer of light verse, and old boy of the Dragon School, wrote
The Times obituary for Mr C. C. Lynam. ==Selected publications==