Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Edmund Moubray Lyons (27 October 1819 – 23 June 1855) was an officer of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. He served during the early nineteenth century, and was mortally wounded while commanding in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

Early life

Edmund Lyons was born on 27 October 1819. He was the second son of

Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons Admiral Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons, (21 November 179023 November 1858) was an eminent British Admiral of the Royal Navy, and diplomat, who ensured Britain's victory in the Crimean War, during which he was Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterran ...

and Augusta Louisa (née Rogers). His elder brother, whom he predeceased, was

Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, 1st Earl Lyons (26 April 1817 – 5 December 1887) was a British diplomat, who was the favourite diplomat of Queen Victoria, during the four great crises of the second half of the 19th century: Italian unificat ...

Royal Navy career

Early career

Edmund entered the Royal Naval College on 10 July 1829. He passed his examinations in 1838, and went out to the Far East where he served during the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

. He was present at the operations at

Bocca Tigris The Humen, also Bocca Tigris or Bogue, is a narrow strait in the Pearl River Delta that separates Shiziyang in the north and Lingdingyang in the south near Humen Town in China's Guangdong Province. It is the site of the Pearl River's discharge ...

, seeing action at the

Battle of the Bogue The Battle of the Bogue () was fought between British and Chinese forces in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong province, China, on 23–26 February 1841 during the First Opium War. The British launched an amphibious attack at the Humen strait ( ...

and the Battle of Canton. For his good service he was promoted to lieutenant on 10 June 1841. He was then appointed as an additional lieutenant aboard the 120-gun , then serving in the Mediterranean. ''Howe'' was at this time under the command of Captain

Robert Smart Admiral Sir Robert Smart, KCB, KH (September 1796 – 10 September 1874) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. Naval career Smart joined the Royal Navy and was promoted to lieutenant in 1820. Pro ...

, as the flagship of Francis Mason, then the second-in-command of the

Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...

. From ''Howe'' Lyons moved to the 92-gun on 1 March 1842, then under the command of Captain Robert Maunsell. Lyons' next ship was the 110-gun , which he joined on 11 January 1844 as an additional lieutenant. ''Queen'' was at this time in the Mediterranean as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Owen, and was commanded by John Baker Porter Hay. Lyons's time aboard ''Queen'' was short-lived, he was appointed to the 24-gun , under Captain

Lord Clarence Paget Admiral Lord Clarence Edward Paget (17 June 1811 – 22 March 1895) was a British naval officer, politician, and sculptor. Naval career Born the younger son of the 1st Marquess of Anglesey, Paget in 1827 like many younger sons of nobility enter ...

, on 15 April 1844. Lyons joined the 26-gun on 19 June 1845 and served under Captain

William Nugent Glascock William Nugent Glascock (c. 1787 – 9 October 1847) was an Irish officer in the Royal Navy and a novelist. He saw service during the French Revolutionary Wars, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and later in the years of relative peace. ...

. He was then appointed as first lieutenant of the 16-gun , under Captain Harry Edmund Edgell, on 10 April 1846. He was promoted to commander on 9 November 1846.

Command

Lyons then took command of his first ship, the 16-gun , on 7 June 1848 and served in the East Indies. He was promoted to captain on 4 October 1849, and then took command of the wooden screw sloop on her commissioning at

Sheerness Sheerness () is a town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 11,938, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby town ...

on 25 February 1854. He served initially in the

White Sea The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is su ...

during the

as part of Sir Erasmus Ommanney's squadron, but then was sent to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

Death

Lyons was involved in a night attack on the batteries at

Sebastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

on 17 June 1855, during which he was mortally wounded. He died ten days later, on 27 June 1855 in

Tarabya Tarabya ( ota, Tarabiye, el, Θεραπειά, translit=Therapiá) is a neighbourhood in the Sarıyer district of Istanbul, Turkey. It is located on the European shoreline of the Bosphorus strait, between the neighbourhoods of Yeniköy, Istanbul, ...

(known to the British as Therapia) on the Bosphorus. The officers and crew of ''Miranda'' paid for a memorial to him in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The same officers also erected a gravestone in memory of Lyons which now rests in

Haydarpaşa Cemetery Haydarpaşa Cemetery, also known as Haidar Pasha Cemetery, Istanbul, ( tr, Haydarpaşa İngiliz Mezarlığı), located in the Haydarpaşa neighborhood of Üsküdar district in the Asian part of Istanbul, Turkey, is a burial ground established init ...

Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a large and densely populated district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered to the north by Beykoz, to the east by Ümraniye, to the southeast by Ataşehir and to the south by Kadıköy; w ...

, Istanbul.

Literary appearance

He appears as a character in the books ''The Valiant Sailors'', ''Hazard of Huntress'', and other works by V.A. Stuart.

Sources

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, Edmund M 1819 births 1855 deaths British military personnel killed in the Crimean War Royal Navy officers Royal Navy personnel of the Crimean War Royal Navy personnel of the First Opium War Younger sons of barons