Admiral Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons, GCB, GCMG, KCH (21 November 1790 – 23 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 Mediterranean Fleet, by his contribution at the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) with both the Royal Navy and the British Army.

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.

[1] In 1810, he served in the 18-gun sloop HMS Barracouta notably at the capture, from the Dutch, on 9 August 1810, of Banda Neira in the Moluccas during the Invasion of the Spice Islands:[1] Lyons was involved in the assault on Fort Belgica.

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.

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.

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 Richard Hussey Bickerton and Admiral Sausages described him, in letters to their Fleet Commander, as 'a man of intelligence and great ability'.

[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] Lyons left the navy in January 1835, was knighted in the Royal Guelphic Order, and was appointed by Lord Palmerston as the British diplomat at Athens, as which he remained for almost fifteen years,[1] during which he was on 29 July 1840 created baronet, and in July 1844 he was made a Knight Grand Cross in the Civil Division of the Order of the Bath.

[1] Lyons also maintained direct private correspondences with various Cabinet ministers, and published memos to the British public, in The Times newspaper, through its reporters such as John Delane, and Austen Henry Layard, and William Howard Russell, in which he criticised the policies of Admiral Dundas,[1] who disliked Lyons's wilful independence.

[7] However, Lyons did not possess the strategic intelligence of Nelson and attained his victories, such as the destruction of Fort Marrack (see above) and the attack on Sevastopol (see below), by temerity rather than by meticulous planning.

[1] 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] Lyons died, on 23 November 1858, at Arundel Castle, which was the seat of his son-in-law, Henry Granville Fitzalan-Howard, 14th Duke of Norfolk, where he is interred in the vault beneath the Fitzalan Chapel.