Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons
Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons | |
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Born | Burton, Hampshire, England, Great Britain | 21 November 1790
Died | 23 November 1858 Arundel Castle, United Kingdom | (aged 68)
Buried | |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Service/ | ![]() |
Years of service | 1803–1858 |
Rank | Admiral |
Commands held | HMS Rinaldo HMS Blonde HMS Madagascar Mediterranean Fleet |
Battles/wars | Crimean War |
Awards |
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Relations |
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As a consequence of his 'intelligence and great ability', 'quiet humour', 'frankness and urbanity', and 'vigilance and practical skill', Lyons was appointed to ambassadorial positions in Sweden, and in Switzerland, and to the court of King Otto of Greece.
Lyons (whose brother
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ec/Lyonscoat.jpg)
Family
Edmund Lyons was born at Whitehayes House,
His nephews included
Lyons first went to sea on board HMS Terrible in 1798, when he was eight years old. He then returned to England to attend Hyde Abbey School near Winchester, which he attended until 1803, when he joined the Royal Navy and the crew of the frigate HMS Active, with which he remained for four years.[1] He served at the passage of the Dardanelles, under Sir John Duckworth, in February 1807.[1]
He was posted to the West Indies later in 1807 and commissioned as a lieutenant in 1809, as which he participated in the capture of Banda Neira, for which he was mentioned for gallantry
Lyons destroys Fort Marrack
In 1811, a planned British attack on the fortified port of Fort Marrack, in the Sunda Strait of Batavia, Dutch East Indies, was postponed after the Royal Navy received intelligence that Dutch reinforcements had arrived. Lyons with only 34 men attacked the fort anyway and destroyed its 180-strong garrison and 54 guns.[7] Lyons was on 25 July dispatched to land Dutch prisoners on the island. On his return journey, on 30 July, he decided to launch a surprise midnight attack on the Dutch fort with the 34 men who accompanied him. Lyons stormed and captured the Dutch battery, and dispersed its Dutch garrison of 180 men and two boat-crews,[5] and gunned down the Dutch reinforcements as they arrived, and then dismantled the fort and destroyed its 54 guns[5] with dynamite so that they could not be used on the British Fleet.[1]
This action was praised by the Royal Navy as 'the most outstanding example of individual bravery in the wars which followed the French Revolution'. Lyons's Commander-in-Chief, Commodore Broughton, acknowledged Lyons's 'gallantry and zeal' but criticised Lyons because 'the attack was made contrary to orders'.[7] but Lyons was nevertheless for this action mentioned in dispatches and proposed for early promotion to the rank of Commander, which he received on 21 March 1812.[1]
Marriage and issue
After his attack on Marrack, Lyons's health deteriorated and he returned to Britain. In 1814, he was promoted to captain and commanded the sloop HMS Rinaldo[1] in the fleet that escorted the French King Louis XVIII and other allied sovereigns[5] from England to France. On 18 July 1814, at Southwick, Hampshire, he married Augusta Louisa (1792–1852), daughter of Captain Josias Rogers of the navy.[3] He was unemployed until 1828, whilst he and his wife had two sons and two daughters:[1]
- Anne Theresa Bickerton Lyons (1815–1894), who married Philip Hartmann Veit von Würtzburg, Baron von Würtzburg, in Bavaria, in 1839.
- Trent affair, and who founded the Lyons School of Diplomacy. He was a favourite of Queen Victoriawho stated that she would allow him to represent her 'at any court in the world'. Richard was granted the higher noble titles of Viscount (1881) and Earl (1887), but he died, unmarried and without issue, before he had formally received the latter.
- Edmund Moubray Lyons (1819–1855). Captain in the Royal Navy who was killed in the Crimean War and died without issue.
- Henry Granville Fitzalan-Howard, 14th Duke of Norfolk, and whose grandson was Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian.
Early Mediterranean service
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/%27The_H._M._S._Blonde%27%2C_by_Robert_Dampier%2C_1825%2C_Washington_Place.jpg/220px-%27The_H._M._S._Blonde%27%2C_by_Robert_Dampier%2C_1825%2C_Washington_Place.jpg)
Lieutenant Maine Walrond Lyons, one of Edmund Lyons's younger brothers, was killed at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. The Duke of Clarence, who was the heir presumptive to the British throne, subsequently appointed Edmund, in 1828, to command the 46-gun frigate HMS Blonde during the end of the Greek War of Independence.[1]
Lyons arrived in Malta on 20 May 1828, when Sir
On HMS Blonde, Lyons was involved in the capture of Kastro Morea in the Peloponnese, for which he was knighted in both France and Greece. The following year, Lyons took the Blonde to become the first British warship to visit Sevastopol, the Caucasus, and Odessa: as a consequence of which 25 years later, Lyons was the only senior officer involved in the Crimean War who had direct knowledge of the Black Sea.[1] In 1831 Lyons was appointed to command of the frigate HMS Madagascar,[1] which he brought home to England before he sailed it for the Mediterranean in February 1832.[1]
Diplomat at Athens, Switzerland, and Sweden
In August 1832, Lyons transported the new King
In 1849 Lyons was appointed
Second-in-command of Mediterranean Fleet
In November 1853, with the advocacy of Sir James Graham, Lyons returned to active service in the Royal Navy, and was appointed second in command of the British Mediterranean Fleet, and was granted a pension of £900 per annum for his diplomatic service. Lyons left England for the Dardanelles, as Rear-Admiral of the White, on board the steam frigate HMS Terrible on 5 November 1853, before he then took command of his flagship, the new screw-steam ship-of-the-line HMS Agamemnon (1852) (91 guns).[11][3][1]
Crimean War: maverick nature and private correspondences
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Portrait_of_Admiral_Sir_Edmund_Lyons_%284673793%29.jpg/220px-Portrait_of_Admiral_Sir_Edmund_Lyons_%284673793%29.jpg)
Sir James Graham
Lyons maintained secret private correspondence with the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James Graham, whose plans for an amphibious assault on Sevastopol Lyons advocated at the Allied Counsels of War between July and August 1854, despite the policy his immediate superior, Vice-Admiral Dundas.[1]
Lyons also maintained direct private correspondences with various
Both the English Fleet and the French Fleet zealously commended Lyons's 'skill and boldness' during the Crimean War.
Lord Raglan and the army
Furthermore, Lyons's charisma made him a favourite of the Army General Lord Raglan, with whom he maintained another private correspondence. The friendship between Lyons and Raglan was productive of an inter-service rapport during the Crimean War and Lyons served as an intermediary between the Navy and the Army. When Lyons captured Balaklava, he advised Raglan to adopt it as the base for the British Army: Raglan did so. However, this was a poor decision because it compelled the army to suffer the Crimean winter.[1]
Although he was a Naval Commander, Lyons led a force during the diversionary attack on Sevastopol on 17 October 1854. Idiosyncratically, Lyons ignored Admiral Dundas's orders to remain disengaged and proceeded to attack on his own initiative: on this occasion, however, Lyons's attack was unsuccessful and the ships were damaged and heavy casualties sustained. However, although the attack failed, Lyons was praised for his bravery by the High Command. Lyons conceded that he was responsible for the failure, but the High Command blamed Dundas for the failure, dismissed Dundas, and, in January 1855, made Lyons Commander-in-Chief.[1][12]
Lyons continued to work productively with Raglan to improve supply arrangements in the Bosphorus and at Balaklava. Lyons secured another diplomatic triumph when he secured, in May 1855, French consent to capture of Kerch and occupation of the Sea of Azov: this operation destroyed the logistic support of the Russian army in the Crimea and enabled the allied victory.[1]
Later Crimean War
In June 1855, Lyons lost both his own son, Edmund, a Captain in the Royal Navy, who had been wounded in a night attack on Sevastopol, and his friend and colleague Lord Raglan.[1] Lyons after the defeat of Sevastopol led a successful expedition, which was the first military action to involve armoured warships, to capture Kinburn on 17 October 1855, which enabled access to the Bug and Dnieper rivers.[1] In July 1855, Lyons, who had already received the honour of Knight Grand Cross of the Civil Division of the Order of the Bath, received the honour of Knight Grand Cross of the Military Division of the same order. He is one of few persons to have attained the rank of Knight Grand Cross in both divisions of the Order of the Bath.[1] Lyons attended the January 1856 allied Council of War at Paris, and subsequent to the Treaty of Paris he relinquished his post of Commander in Chief of the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean,[1] for which a Banquet was subsequently hosted for him at the Mansion House, London and he was awarded the Freedom of the City of London on 24 May 1856.[13]
Lyons's contribution to the Crimean War was imperative to the allied success. He transported the British Army to the Crimea and he ensured its supplies and support by the military on land, where he led assaults, including the Kerch operation, and where his friendship with Lord Raglan enabled the coordination of the Royal Navy with the British Army and Navy.[1]
Final years, death, and legacy
Edmund Lyons was created a Baron, of Christchurch, on 23 June 1856. He entered the House of Lords between Admiral
There is a life-sized statue of him, by Matthew Noble, in St Paul's Cathedral,[15] which remains there.[1][16] The Edmund River and Lyons River in Australia are named after him.[17]
Lyons's 'intelligence and great ability'[3] and 'bravery, spirit, and commitment'[1] earned him the loyalty of the officers and rank-and-file whom he commanded, and he was described as 'as lavish with his praise of others as he was anxious to be praised by his superiors'.[1] His 1859 Obituary described him as 'affable, playful, and full of quiet humour', as having 'frankness and urbanity', as having 'inimitable' ability in 'graphic description', and as having 'vigilance and practical skill' with which he was 'prompt in expedients'.[18] However, Edmund Lyons was described by a Foreign Secretary, George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon as 'irritable and one of the vainest men I ever knew'.[1]
Honours
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Edmund_Lyons_%28small%29.jpg)
Lyons received the following honours:[1]
- 1828 – Knight of the Order of St Louis(France)
- 1833 – Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer (Greece)
- 1835 – Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order (House of Guelph)
- 1840 – Baronet (United Kingdom)
- 1844 – Knight Grand Cross of the Civil Division of the Order of the Bath (United Kingdom)
- 1855 – Knight Grand Cross of the Military Division of the Order of the Bath (United Kingdom)
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (United Kingdom)
- 1855 – Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class (Ottoman Empire)
- 1855/6 – Knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (France)
- 1856 – Freedom of the City of London
- 1856 – Grand Cross of the Military Order of Savoy (Italy)
- 1856 – Raised to the Peerage of United Kingdom as Baron Lyons, of Christchurch, Hampshire, (United Kingdom).
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b c Palmer, Humphrey (Spring 2015). "The Broadsheet, Admiral John Lyons (d. 1872)". No. 14. Friends of Broadwater and Worthing Cemetery. pp. 16–17.
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(help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i Jenkins, Brian. Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War. McGill-Queen's Press, 2014.
- ^ Eardley-Wilmot, S.M. (1898). Life of Vice-Admiral Edmund, Lord Lyons. Sampson Low, Marston & Company, London.
- ^ a b c d O'Byrne, William Richard. A Naval Biographical Dictionary.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 174.
- ^ a b c d e f g Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
- ^ Russian War, 1854. Baltic and Black Sea Official Correspondence edited by D. Bonner-Smith and Captain A.C. Dewar. Navy Records Society, 1943. 'Introduction' to Black Sea section by Captain A. C. Dewar, pp. 207–8.
- ^ "No. 20943". The London Gazette. 9 February 1849. p. 391.
- ^ Russian War, 1854. Baltic and Black Sea Official Correspondence p. 208.
- ^ Russian War, 1854. Baltic and Black Sea Official Correspondence p. 209.
- ^ Russian War, 1854. Baltic and Black Sea Official Correspondence pp. 215–225
- ^ "Illustrated London News, 1856". Illustrated London News Online.
- ^ O'Byrne, William Richard. Journals of the House of Lords, Volume 88. H. M. Stationery Office, 1856. p. 313.
- Sinclair, W.p. 455: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.
- ^ "Victorian Web, Sculpture of Edmund Lyons, St Paul's Cathedral". Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 21 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
- ^ "History of river names – E". Western Australian Land Information Authority. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
- ^ "1859 Obituary of Edmund, Baron Lyons" (PDF). Victorian Voices.
Further reading
- "1859 Obituary of Edmund, Baron Lyons" (PDF). Victorian Voices.
- "Lyons, Edmund, first Baron Lyons (1790–1858), naval officer and diplomatist". ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Eardley-Wilmot, S. M. Lord Lyons: Life of Vice-Admiral Edmund, Lord Lyons. Sampson Low, Marston and Company,1898.
- Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
- "Sir Algernon Lyons". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34650. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
- O'Byrne, William Richard. A Naval Biographical Dictionary, Lyons, Edmund.
- Langford Vere, Oliver. History of the Island of Antigua, Vol. 2. Mitchell and Hughes, London, 1894. pp. 214–217.
- Jenkins, Brian. Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War. McGill-Queen's Press, 2014.
- "Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34650. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
External links
Media related to Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons at Wikimedia Commons