Orders, Decorations and Medals

New Zealand 1845-66, reverse undated (Lieut-Col. W. Lyon, Auckland Mil.) locally engraved naming, claw tightened, otherwise good very fine £1000-1400

In 1841 William Lyon, aged 16 years, entered the British Army as an Ensign in the Coldstream Guards. Two years later he was a Lieutenant by purchase and at the age of 22 was a Captain by purchase. In 1848 he exchanged for the 92nd Highlanders then stationed in Ireland, moving to the Ionian Islands in 1851 and then on to Gibraltar in 1853. The regiment went to the Crimea in September 1855, just after the fall of Sebastopol, and remained there for nine months before returning to Gibraltar. Home on leave and frustrated by lack of action, Lyon suffered a horrendous accident when out on a rabbit shoot, his gun exploded, inflicting injuries which necessitated the amputation of his left arm.

With his military career seemingly in tatters, he left the army and migrated to New Zealand to set up as a farmer. Here he found the action he had craved with the onset of the Second Maori War. Lyon volunteered his services, rightly concluding that his former Imperial commissioned experience would outweigh a missing arm. Retaining his Captaincy, he was given command of a company of Wairoa Volunteers, and appointed Adjutant to Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Balneavis. In June 1863 he was promoted to Major and was given command of a wing of the 3rd Auckland Militia and command of the Wairoa Militia District. In September 1863 he repelled an attack on Galloway Redoubt, protecting an approach to Auckland. Then, under the cover of darkness he personally led his troops in hot pursuit of the attacker. Having caught up with them at their pa at Otau, he drove them from their position with heavy loss. For these actions he was mentioned in despatches.

In October 1863 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and given command of the 3rd Waikato Militia. The last full-scale battle in the Waikato was fought at Orakau, 30 March-2 April 1864. The men of the Waikato Militia had signed on as military settlers and were allotted an amount of land according to rank. Sadly their land was very much disputed and necessitated the building of ‘Camp Cambridge’ (present day Cambridge) as a refuge and redoubt. With the disbandment of the 3rd Waikato Militia in 1867, Lyon was appointed Inspector of the 1st Division of the newly formed Armed Constabulary, whilst still retaining command of the defence forces based at Cambridge. Involved in countless skirmishes over the next few years, and in more serious confrontations at Opotiki in 1866, Westmere in 1868 and Tauranga-ika and Whakamara in 1869.

It was written of him, ‘This brave and energetic officer has been on active service since 1860, and under fire so often that it would nearly lead one to suppose he had hitherto borne a charmed life’. Lyon later acted as Under-Secretary for Defence and Commissioner of Armed Forces, and in 1884 he was given command of the entire Auckland Volunteer District, charged with its defence against a widely anticipated attack by Russia. He died unexpectedly in 1887 and was buried with full military honours at St. Andrew’s Churchyard, Epsom, Auckland. The New Zealand Herald said of him, ‘.... a thorough soldier, brusque and blunt in manner but withal gentle and courteous, painstaking in his duties and a rigid disciplinarian, but a soldier’s friend in all ways, and few commanders have enjoyed so much the esteem and confidence of his men.’

Sold with a quantity of copied research well presented in a folder. Includes the article, Lieutenant-Colonel William Charles Lyon, Auckland Militia, by Dan Lyon, Journal of the Orders and Medals Research Society, December 2004, p.243-247. Also with a letter on Sandringham House headed paper, dated 3 February 2005, in which a Lady-in-Waiting to H.M. The Queen expressed thanks on behalf of the Queen for a copy of the above article - which had earlier revealed that the Queen and Lieutenant-Colonel Lyon had shared a common ancestor.