Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Clasp: Azoff, in its original card box of issue with printed label ‘AZOFF’, the lid inscribed in ink ‘Capt E M Lyons’, extremely fine and extremely rare £300-£400

Edmund Moubray Lyons was born on 27 June 1819, second and youngest son of Admiral Lord Lyons. He entered the Royal Naval College on 10 July 1829, passed his examination in 1838, and obtained his first commission on 11 June 1841, as Mate in the Melville. In this ship he was present at the capture of the forts at the Bocca Tigris, and subsequent operations against Canton in 1841 (China medal). He was promoted to Lieutenant on 11 June 1841, and subsequently served in various ships on the Mediterranean station. As first of the Siren, to which he was appointed on 10 April 1846, under Captain Harry Edgell, Lyons took part in operations against the Moorish pirates, and, later that year, the boats of the Siren, under his command, captured four piratical craft, with sixty men, near the Turkish island of Stanchio. For these services he was promoted to Commander on 9 November 1846.

Serving once more on the China station as Commander of the Pilot cruiser, Lyons was actively engaged against the Chinese pirates. In the spring of 1849 the main pirate fleet, consisting of more than seventy sail, under Shap’n’gtzai, made its rendezvous at Tienpakh, and ravaged commerce and the coast from Macao to the Gulf of Tongking; while another part of it, forty sail strong, under Chuiapoo, made its headquarters in Bias Bay, and preyed upon the trade between Hong Kong and Amoy. On 13 May 1849, Lyons chased six pirate junks, and, with his boats, captured and destroyed two. On 25th May, he destroyed a third, and two days later, a fourth. On 2nd June, a fifth, and on the 3rd the sixth fell to him. A little later, three more of Chuiapoo’s squadron having been reported against, he went in chase, and, on the 25th, destroyed one in Red Bay, and another off the Lamyat islands. All these affairs cost him only three people wounded. In consequence, Chuiapoo, with his division, returned to Bias Bay. For his services against these pirates, Lyons was made post-captain on 4 October 1849.

In May 1854, shortly after the outbreak of the Russian war, Lyons was despatched in command of the Miranda, as part of a small squadron, with Eurydice and Brisk, to Arctic waters with the purpose of blockading the Russian ports in the White Sea, including Archangel and other places in the Kola Inlet. Archangel was considered to be too strong for attack by so small a force, but on 18th July, while the Miranda and Brisk were rounding Solovetskoi island, it was perceived that troops and artillery were stationed in the woods there. The following morning, after unavailing negotiations, the ships opened fire. A smart action followed, the Russians replying from a battery, from two towers of the monastery, and with small arms from the beach. Fire continued until the early evening, by which time red-hot shot, shell, and musketry had silenced all opposition. On 31st July a landing was effected on Shayley island, where the public buildings were burnt, and nine guns were taken or destroyed.

On 23rd August, Lyons took his ship up to Kola and anchored her off the town, which was fortified and contained large storehouses. Lyons sent Lieutenant Cecil Buckley, under a flag of truce, to demand a surrender, to which no answer had been received by the dawn of the following day. Lyons accordingly opened fire from the Miranda, the Russians briskly replying.

“The guns,” says Lyons in his despatch, “were shortly dismounted, and the battery reduced to ruins; but, although our shells burst well into the loopholed houses and stockades, an obstinate fire of musketry was kept up from various parts of the town. This allowed me no alternative, and I was obliged to destroy it. It was soon in flames from our shell and red-hot shot, and burned furiously, being fanned by a fresh breeze. The ship, at this time, became critically situated. The violence of the tide caused her to drag the bower and stream anchors, and the two kedges laid out to spring her broadside; and, the passage being too narrow for her to swing, she grounded at less than three hundred yards from the burning town, fragments from which were blown on board. However, by keeping the sails, rigging and decks well wetted until the ship was hove off, no bad consequences ensued.”

The squadron returned to England in October 1854, and, for unknown reasons, the Miranda appeared in the Admiralty list of ships eligible for the Baltic Medal, despite never having sailed or steamed anywhere near those particular waters.

On 25 May 1855, Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons despatched a light squadron, comprising 14 vessels under the overall command of Captain Lyons, in the Miranda, into the Sea of Azoff. Captain Lyons proceeded to inflict tremendous losses on the enemy. Within four days after the squadron passed the straits of Kertch they had destroyed 245 Russian vessels employed in carrying provisions to the Russian army in the Crimea, many of them of large size and fully equipped and laden. Immense magazines of corn, flour and breadstuffs were destroyed at Berdiansk and Genitchi, comprising altogether more than 7 million rations, and the stores at Taganrog were set on fire and much corn destroyed. Arabat was bombarded and the powder magazine blown up. At Berdiansk the enemy were forced to run on shore and burn four war steamers, under the command of Rear-admiral Wolff. At Kertch the enemy destroyed upwards of 4 million pounds of corn and 500,000 pounds of flour.

The allied fleet seemed able to strike with impunity at any Russian town, depot, fishery or fortification and destroyed staggering quantities of shipping, armaments, equipment, provisions and stores of all kinds, destined for use by the Russian forces in the Crimea or in the Caucasus. Their success had a decided effect on the ability of the Russians to supply and reinforce their armies in the Crimea, and Lyons’ services in the Sea of Azoff repeatedly drew the admiration and approbation of the Admiralty. These commando type raids on the northern shores of the Sea of Azoff were recognised by the award of no fewer than nine Victoria Crosses, two of them going to the Miranda.

On 15th June, the troops and major line-of-battle ships which had successfully taken Kertch and Yenikale, were recalled to the Crimea in view of a planned assault on the Redan and Malakoff bastions of Sebastopol on 18th June. In the naval bombardment on the 17th June, that preceded the assault planned for the following day, the gallant Captain Lyons was severely wounded. He was sent to hospital at Therapia, and, though he at first made light of his injury, gangrene set in and he died of his wounds on the 23rd June.