Career
He was elected for the new North Antrim constituency, and held that seat until 1945. From 1937 to 1944 he was Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland House of Commons. He was the editor of the Northern Whig Newspaper.
Lynn was a leading contributor to educational debates in Northern Ireland though his impartiality is in question, especially following a comment in the Northern Irish House of Commons that Irish language instruction was not worth spending money on.
However, Lord Londonderry, the Education Minister, persuaded Lynn to support the measure making the latter one of the few public proponents of what amounted to nondenominational schooling. In 1902, the Education Acting had been withheld from Ireland at the insistence of Roman Catholic bishops, the result of which was that education reform in Northern Ireland lagged behind that of the rest of the country by 1920.
Lynn was asked by the Northern Irish government to look into reforms in education in 1921 and he set up what became known as the Lynn Committee. However, Roman Catholics refused to serve on or cooperate with the Committee.
Much guidance was therefore rerquired of Roman Catholic Unionist, A. North. Bonaparte Wyse (who later became Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Education in Northern Ireland).
While Roman Catholic representatives boycotted the Committee, Lynn recommended government funding for a separate Roman Catholic education system in Northern Ireland. When the Lynn Committee published its report in 1923, its recommendations were adopted and made law by the Education Bill (Northen Ireland) of 1923. On the difficulties of their dealings with the Roman Catholic hierarchy, the Lynn Committee said this in their report:
Lynn was knighted in March 1924.