Lord Lyons

The Right Honourable Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, 1st Earl Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, 2nd Baron Lyons, 2nd Baronet. GCB, GCMG, PC,
Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons
British Ambassador to France
In office 1867–1887
Preceded by	The Earl Cowley
Succeeded by	The Earl of Lytton
British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
In office 1865–1867
Preceded by	Sir Henry Bulwer
Succeeded by	Sir Henry Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound
British Minister to the United States
In office 1858–1865
Preceded by	The Lord Napier
Succeeded by	Sir Frederick Bruce
British Minister to Tuscany
In office 1858–1858
Preceded by	Constantine Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby
Succeeded by	Peter Campbell Scarlett
Personal details
Born	26 April 1817
Died	5 December 1887 (1887-12-06) (aged 70)
Relations	Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons (father) John Lyons of Antigua (grandfather) Augusta Mary Minna Catherine Lyons (sister), 14th Duchess of Norfolk. Anne Theresa Bickerton Lyons, (sister) Baroness von Würtzburg Sir Algernon Lyons, Admiral of the Fleet (first cousin) Richard Lyons Pearson, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (first cousin) Henry Granville Fitzalan-Howard, 14th Duke of Norfolk (brother-in-law)
Education	Elizabeth College, Guernsey, Homeschooled Winchester College
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford (BA, 1838; MA, 1843)

Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, 1st Earl Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, 2nd Baron Lyons, 2nd Baronet, of Christchurch GCB, GCMG, PC (26 April 1817 – 5 December 1887) was an eminent British diplomat, the favourite of Queen Victoria. Lyons was an imperative element of British diplomacy during each of the four great crises of the second half of the 19th century: Italian unification, the American Civil War, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, and the replacement of France, by the unified Germany, as the dominant Continental power. He is best known for solving the Trent Affair during the American Civil War, for laying the foundations for the Special Relationship, and for predicting, 32 years before World War One, the occurrence of an imperial war between France and Germany that would destroy Britain’s international dominance.

He served as British Ambassador to the United States from 1858 to 1865, during the American Civil War, British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1865 to 1867, and British Ambassador to France from 1867 to 1887, the most prestigious position in the Civil Service, during one of the most important periods of Continental history.

Famous for his tact, equanimity towards foreign peoples, staunchness, stoicism, wit, and opulent dinner parties, Lyons was offered the Cabinet position of Foreign Secretary on three separate occasions, by three separate Prime Ministers (Gladstone, Disraeli, Salisbury) and encouraged to accept the post by Queen Victoria, but declined the offer on all three occasions. He founded the Lyons School of Diplomacy and trained the diplomats Sir Edward Baldwin Malet and Sir Edmund Monson, 1st Baronet, in addition to many others who proceeded to serve in the most important diplomatic posts for the 30 years after his death. Jenkins (2014), in the most recent biography of Lyons, considers him to be the exemplar of the British diplomat, of the ‘Foreign Office mind’, who created a canon of practical norms of British imperial diplomacy, including the necessity for neutrality in domestic party politics and the necessity for extensive confidential correspondence with various Cabinet ministers.