LYONS

The twenty years, from October 1867, in which Lyons was British Ambassador to France included the last years of the Second French Empire, the Franco-Prussian War, the Paris Commune, the establishment of the Third Republic and the beginning of the Boulanger crisis, which threatened to destroy the republican settlement. Lyons served in this position for a continuous twenty years, which made him one of its longest serving occupants, in which his political neutrality enabled him to develop amicable relationships with Liberal ministers to whose political sympathies he was averse.Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Frederick PICKARD (1844-1880) who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in New Zealand in 1863. After further service and promotion in the Royal Artillery, Pickard was appointed an Equerry to the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn in 1871; seven years later, he was made Assistant Keeper of the Privy Purse and Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen and promoted to lieutenant colonel, but died of tuberculosis in France, aged 35, less than two years later.Patrice de MACMAHON (1808-1893) was a French general and politician who served as President of France from 1873 to 1879. He was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France by Napoleon III.