Margaret Marie Hughes was born on 12 August 1934 in Clapham, London, the only child of Albert Arthur Hughes, a solicitor’s managing clerk, and Gladys Margaret Vorstius. The family later moved to Norbury, London SW16. Margaret was evacuated to Blockley in Gloucestershire for parts of the Second World War. She was educated at Croydon High School for Girls before coming to Girton College, 1953-56, to study geography. She specialised in Geomorphology in her final year and her Director of Studies was Jean Grove.
Margaret taught geography at Nottingham High School for Girls (1956-60), Queen Mary’s High School for Girls, Walsall (1960-62), and Malvern Hall School, Solihull (1971-84). She had met Colin Tyler, a law student at Emmanuel College, during her first year at Girton: they married in Norbury in August 1958 and had two sons, born in 1964 and 1966.
Margaret and Colin travelled widely in retirement, visiting Crete (1987), Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong (1988), Zimbabwe and Botswana (1993), Spain (1998-99), Patagonia (2001) and Greece (2003), not least because of Margaret’s love of geography, geology and botany. She and Colin were members of the Alpine Garden Society: trips in connection with this included the Alps, the Pyrenees and Corsica.
Margaret's many other interests included art and golf. She joined the Royal Society of Birmingham Artists, was an accomplished painter of landscapes and mixed-media abstracts, and continued painting until towards the end of her life. She was Lady Captain of Moseley Golf Club 1996-98 and an active member of the Worcestershire Lady Captains Golf Society.
Margaret Tyler died in Marlborough, Wiltshire, on 7 July 2018. She is commemorated at Girton College by the Margaret Tyler Research Fellowship in Geography, endowed by Colin Tyler. [Notes derived from Girton College Register Vol. II and from biographical details in GCPP Tyler 1/1.]