Background
His father was General Lawrence D. Tyson, a prominent Knoxville businessman and philanthropist, Army General, and United States. Senator.
His father was General Lawrence D. Tyson, a prominent Knoxville businessman and philanthropist, Army General, and United States. Senator.
Tyson was killed in action during a naval patrol in the North Sea near the end of the First World War. Knoxville"s McGhee Tyson Airport is named after him. Born in Clifton Springs, New York on August 10, 1889, Tyson moved with his family to Knoxville Tennessee in 1891.
Charles McGhee Tyson attended boarding school at Saint Paul"s School in New Hampshire followed by Princeton University.
After finishing college in 1912 Tyson returned to Knoxville to work as an executive in his father"s textile mills. Charles McGhee Tyson enlisted in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps in 1917 and transferred to England as a Lieutenant in August 1918.
He served with an aerial unit based in Northern England that dropped mines in the North Sea to combat German U-boats. He held an executive logistics post, purchasing supplies for his unit
On October 11 he volunteered for a mine laying mission and served as the plane"s nose gunner.
Tyson was killed when his plane crashed into the North Sea near the Humber River. McGhee Tyson Airport was moved in 1935 to its present location in Alcoa, Tennessee, just south of Knoxville.