The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-21 00:00:00

SIR EDMUND LYONS.

Sir Edmund Lyons, whose immediate elevati on to ,tb°,
peerage we announced in our columns yesterday, is 0'
West Indian extraction, his father and grandfatlaer having
been settled during the last century on an estate calltat
Lyons, in the island of Antigua. His father, 'oho is Ale"
scribed by Burke' as " John Lyons, Esq., of 'Lyons, is
Antigua, and of St. Austin's, Hants, and who •was a ma'
jor in the Christchurch Volunteer Artillery tturing
war with France, married .a daughter of Mr. Jf. M. gra'
rond; of Mountrath, Devon, by whom be hai i three sons
and three daughters. His sister married the ft .they of Ad'.
miral. Walcott, the present M.P. ter Christcl iurch.
Edmund, the second son of the above Mr. sliohn Lyoo6,
was born at White Hayes, a mansion in eats hamlet of
Burton, near Christchurch, Hampshire,' (ea the 21"
November, 1790. At an early age Edam id Lyons ass
sent to llEyde Abbey School, near Wireahester, the°
under Dr. Richards, who could boast atn ong his puPil
the names of George Canning, Dean. Gaisford, as
Wolfe; the author of the " Ode on the Burial of Sir
Moore." Here, however, Edmund Lyon.s did-not•renngli
long. In June, 1801, at the age of 10, he entered Or
navy, under the late Admiral Sir Harry Burrard Neajet
on board the Royal Charlotte, and in th e following 1„1::
joined the Maidstone, Capt. R. Mowbray.. In 1807 vie"l
biro serving in the Active, in the Dardantilleg, under Sir '•
T. Duckworth, and engaged in the sum! ,eful attack on Ow
redoubt of Point Pesquies on the Asia.ti o shore. In Nevi
1800, he became lieutenant in the Bar racouta bfig,
in the following year he was one of the storming Parl
wile attacked the Castle of Belgica,, in the island et
Banda Neira, during a midnight stort n, an achievemeg! •
which added another Dutch colony to our possessions In
the Indian seas. In 1811 he was serviing on the was!of
:
Java, but was forced to return home inshattered best..,"'
soon after he had•stormed and captured the strong fortresx'
of Marrack. In 1812 he was appointed to the Rinel
in which vessel he conveyed Louis XVIII. to France end
brought the allied Sovereigns to England. He obtains •
post rank in 1814, but does not appea.r to have been •sr
tively employed between that date and 1828, when, 1.
command of the Blonde, he blockaded Navarino, an,
superintended the naval expedition in aid of the Frenelr
investment of the Castle of the Morea, the last hold ,
the Sultan, in the Peloponnesus. For twelve days 011
nights he was continually in the trenches; and, on the.
cessation of hostilities, his courteous bearing, skit!, and
bravery obtained for him the orders of St. Louis ,
France and of the Redeemer of Greece. In 1829 'I
conveyed the British Ambassador, Sir R. Gordon, t.,.`"
Constantinople in the Blonde, and in 1831 took Sir d•
Malcolm to Alexandria. It is not a little singular that
the Blonde was the first British vessel that entered the
Black Sea ; and in her Captain Lyons 'visited both ;
Odessa and Sebastopol nearly 25 years ago. In 1.832, •
in the Madagascar, he was an eye-witness of the bow •
bardment of Acre by Ibrahim Pasha, and in the follow'.
ing year he escorted King Otho and the Bavarian Em,
bassy from Trieste to Greece. He paid el' the Made-
gascar in January, 1835, and in the st see month was
knighted and received the insignia of aICO H. groin
JUly, 1835, to February, 1849, he filled the post of All"
nister Plenipotentiary and Ambassador Extraordinary a'
the Court of Athens ; from 1849 to 1851 he held the
same appointment in Switzerland • and from 1851 to the
end of 1853 at Stockholm. The latter appointment "
resigned when the war with Russia became imminent, in
order to take the post of second in command in the
Black Sea under Admiral J. W. D. Dundas, on "'hes°
resignation be became Commander in-Chief of the Bleelg
Sea fleet, in January, 1855. He was created alaarone
t
for his civil services in 1840, and honoured with the
Grand Cross of the Bath in 1844. In 1855 he received
from the Sultan of Turkey the dignity of a Medjidie a
the first class. The rest of the story of Sir Edluen
Lyons's cat eer is too fresh in our readers' memories to
need detailing here.
Sir Edmnnd Lyons married, in 1814, Augustaecond
daughter of the late Captain Josias Rogers, R.N.R: b/
whom, who died at Stockholm in 1852, he had two 0 "i
and two daughters. One of the latter is the preeen..,,.
Duchess of Norfolk, the other is married to a Germo""
nobleman, the Count Philip von Wurtzbiirg. Of his tan
sons, the elder, Richard Bickerton (so named after b 4
father's early friend and patron, the late Sir Riche
Bickerton), is attach 6 at Florence and resident at Roe 4;
his Younger son, the late Captain Mowbray Lyons,. Itps -
having swept the Sea of Azoff, in the Miranda, and. be
ing bombarded Arabat, Genitchi, and Taganrog, vi d
severely wounded off the harbour of. Sebastopol,
died on the 23d June last in the hospital at TheraPle;
Ouereaders will not have forgotten the testimony her:
to the character of that gallant officer by her Mkjee ,
rf
in the autograph which she addressed on that melanche
occasion to Sir Edmund Lyons.

DARING BURGLARY.—At about three o'clock °II
Tuesday morning, Prestonfield House, near Edinburgh)
the seat of Sir W. Dick Cunyngham, was entered by
three men, who had evidently obtained accos
by
breaking a window in the portico, and, through it,
opening the front door. In ranging through the house,
their movements started one of the ladies, who, in the
reflection of a mirror on her toilet table, observed one
f them come and carry off a gold watch, which sveuei
lying on a table in 'an ant,chamber. The lady 'wit'
remarkable presence of mind, arose quickly and dresseld,
and, finding assistance no nearer at hand the 11338
inmates of the house being from home—proceeded to
the house of the coachman, and, returning with hlw'
they observed one of the thieves leave the house. The
coachman immediately grappled him ; but, taking a
life preserver from his breast, the burglar struck Oil
so severely on the face that be was obliged to let
n 8
gci
his hold, and the delinquent having given the outer,
to his associates, they all escaped. One of the
was pursued by the butler, when he snapped a pistol
in his face. The property stolen was of inconsiderable
value, excepting the gold watch.