Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons

Admiral Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons (known for most of his career as Sir Edmund Lyons) (21 November 179023 November 1858) was a British Admiral of the Royal Navy, and diplomat in Europe, who ensured Britain's victory in the Crimean War, during which he was Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, by his contribution at the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) with both the Royal Navy and the British Army.

He was described by Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland, as 'the best man that can command the British fleet', and by his obituarist as 'the ruling spirit of the Navy' and 'as brave and good a man as ever an English sun smiled on'.

His biographers have characterised him by his 'intelligence and great ability', 'vigilance and practical skill', 'inimitable' ability in 'graphic description', and 'lion heart and ready hand'.

He was the first person to attain the rank of Knight Grand Cross in both the military division and the civil division of the Order of the Bath.

He was a younger brother of Vice-Admiral John Lyons (who fought on at the Battle of Trafalgar and served as British Ambassador to Egypt); and the father of the diplomat Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons (who was the British Ambassador to the USA who solved the Trent Affair, and later British Ambassador to France); and the uncle of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Algernon Lyons.

Family

Edmund Lyons was born at Whitehayes House, Burton, near Christchurch, on 21 November 1790. He was the fourth son of Captain John Lyons of Antigua, an owner of 563 acres of sugar plantations in Antigua, whose British residence was at St. Austen's, Lymington, Hampshire, and Catherine (née Walrond), daughter of Maine Swete Walrond, 5th Marquis de Vallado.

His brothers included Vice-Admiral John Lyons Lieutenant Maine Walrond Lyons (1798 - 1827), who was killed at the Battle of Navarino; and promoted. Lyons then served as a flag-lieutenant, to Rear-Admiral Drury, on HMS Minden (74 guns).

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, nevertheless attacked the fort and destroyed its 180-man garrison and its 54 guns. and then, in 1833, from Trieste to Athens. and was on 14 January 1850 promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue in the Royal Navy, and was in 1851 appointed minister at Stockholm, at which his wife died.

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. He received a DCL degree from the University of Oxford on 4 June 1856. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral on 19 March 1857 and held the temporary rank of Admiral from December 1857 until his death. which remains there. The Edmund River and Lyons River in Australia are named after him.

Reputation Lyons was the first person to attain the rank of Knight Grand Cross in both the military division and the civil division of the Order of the Bath.

His obituary concludes with a quotation from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1: 'I do not think a braver gentleman,/More active valiant or more valiant young,/More daring or more bold is now alive,/To grace this latter age with noble deeds'.

He was described by Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland as 'the best man that can command the British fleet', and by his obiturarist as 'the ruling spirit of the Navy' and 'as brave and good a man as ever an English sun smiled on'. However, he was described by George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon as 'irritable and one of the vainest men I ever knew'.

Honours

Lyons received the following honours: 1828 – Knight of the Order of Saint 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) 1854 - Thanks of both Houses of Parliament 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 - DCL from the University of Oxford 1856 – Knight 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).