# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Lyons, Edmund

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​LYONS, Bart., G.C.B., K.C.H., K.S.L., K.C.R.G., (Captain, 1814. f-p., 19; h-p., 27.)
Sir Edmund Lyons, born 21 Nov. 1790, is second surviving son of the late John Lyons, Esq., of Antigua, and of St. Austen’s House, Lymington, Hants, by Catherine, daughter of Joseph Walrond, Esq., of Mountrath, co. Devon, and brother of Capt. John Lyons, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, in June, 1801, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Royal Charlotte yacht, Capt. Sir Harry Burrard Neale. In Jan. 1802 he removed to the Maidstone frigate, Capt. Rich. Hussey Moubray, with whom, in Aug. 1803, he was transferred to the Active 38. After sharing in much service on the Mediterranean station, and enacting a Midshipman’s part in Sir John Duckworth’s expedition to the Dardanells, where he assisted in demolishing the formidable redoubt on Point Pesquies, he returned to England in 1807 on board the Bergère sloop, Capt. G. B. Winyates. Sailing towards the close of the same year for the East Indies in the Monmouth 64, Capt. Edw. Durnford King, he was there, in June, 1808, three months after he had joined the Russell 74, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Wm. O’Brien Drury, appointed Acting​Lieutenant of the Caroline 36, Capt. Henry Hart. In the following Aug. he became attached, in a similar capacity, to the Baracouta brig; and to that vessel, commanded by Capts. Wm. Wells and Wm. Fitzwilliam Owen, he was confirmed by commission dated 22 Nov. 1809. At the celebrated capture, in Aug. 1810, of the island of Banda Neira, Mr. Lyons obtained mention as being among the foremost to escalade the walls of the castle of Belgica, an achievement for boldness in the design and conduct in the execution rarely paralleled. In Dec. following, on the arrival of the Baracouta with the news of the conquest at Madras, we find him immediately appointed Flag-Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Drury in the Minden 74. Continuing, on the death of the Commander-in-Chief, to serve in the same ship under Capt. Edw. Wallis Hoare, he proceeded in the spring of 1811 to the coast of Java, there to await the arrival of an expedition fitting out at the different ports of India for the subjugation of that island. While stationed in the Sunda Strait, Mr. Lyons’ extreme zeal for the service, and the gallantry of his nature, led him to the performance of an exploit which so far surpassed all his Captain’s ideas of possibility as to elicit from him a declaration that it was beyond all comment. This was nothing less than the storming and capture, on the night of 30 July, 1811, with not more than 35 men, and with but trifling loss, of the strong fortress of Marrack, mounting 54 guns and garrisoned by 180 soldiers and the crews of two boats. Previously to the latter event Mr. Lyons had been of material assistance to Capt. Geo. Sayer, of the Leda frigate, in reconnoitring and procuring information relative to the force and position of the enemy. During the operations which were shortly afterwards regularly commenced, he was at first intrusted with the command of a flotilla of five gunboats recently captured by Capt. Robt. Maunsell (whom see); and was then allowed to serve in the batteries opposed to Fort Cornelis. After the glorious assaults on that stronghold his health became so impaired from the exertions he had undergone that he felt himself under the necessity of invaliding; and he accordingly returned home in the Caroline 36, Capt. Christ. Cole. Being awarded, on his arrival, a second promotal commission, dated 21 March, 1812, Capt. Lyons was next, 5 April, 1813, appointed to the command of the Rinaldo 10; in which vessel, it appears, he escorted Louis XVIII. to France and the Allied Sovereigns to England, besides affording a passage to Mr. Planta, the bearer of the treaty of Paris. Although advanced to Post-rank 7 June, 1814, he was not again employed until 1828; on 18 Jan. in which year he obtained command of the Blonde 46, fitting for the Mediterranean. In the following Oct., after having for some time blockaded the port of Navarin, we find him directing the movements of the naval part of an expedition ordered to co-operate with the French in the siege of Morea Castle, the last hold of the Turks in the Peloponnesus. During an arduous service of twelve days and nights, in very unfavourable weather, which preceded its unconditional surrender, he distinguished himself in an especial manner, and, having landed, was almost constantly in the trenches, exposed to a tremendous fire of great guns and musketry. The greatness, indeed, of Capt. Lyons’ exertions, added to the satisfaction afforded to the French by his cordial behaviour towards them, led to his being invested with the insignia of the order of St. Louis of France and of a Knight Commander of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece. In the summer of 1829 the Blonde conveyed Sir Robt. Gordon as Ambassador to Constantinople. She was afterwards the first British man-of-war that ever entered the Black Sea; and in Jan. 1831 she took Sir John Malcolm from Alexandria to Malta. Removing about the latter period to the Madagascar 46, Capt. Lyons was afforded an opportunity, in May, 1832, of witnessing Ibrahim Pacha’s bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre; and, in the early part of 1833, of attending King Otho and the Bavarian Regency from Trieste to Greece. He paid the Madagascar off 17 Jan. 1835, and has not been since afloat. In the course of the month last mentioned he was nominated a K.C.H., and received the honour of Knighthood.
Sir Edm. Lyons, who has filled the office of Minister Plenipotentiary at the court of Athens since July, 1835, was created a Baronet for his civil services in 1840, and a G.C.B. 10 July, 1844. He married, 18 July, 1814, Augusta, second daughter of the late Capt. Josias Rogers, R.N., who commanded the Quebec frigate at the capture of the French West India islands in 1794, and niece of the late Rear-Admiral Thos. Rogers. By that lady he has issue with two daughters (the one married to the Baron Philip de Wurtzburg, the other to the Earl of Arundel and Surrey) two sons, the elder of whom. Rich. Bickerton Pemell, is an attaché to the embassy in Greece, and the younger, Edm. Moubray, a Commander in the R.N. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1811, p. 1196.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1811, p. 2407.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1828, p. 2201.