Colonel Lyon
(Died at Auckland, 1887)

Colonel William Lyon, an Imperial veteran, commanded the Constabulary and Volunteer forces in the Waikato, with headquarters at Cambridge, during the often critical days of the “seventies,” and was in charge of the Auckland Volunteer District, 1884–87. He began his soldiering career as an officer of the Coldstream Guards, and exchanged into the 92nd Highlanders, serving with that regiment for ten months in the Crimea. He lost an arm through a shooting accident in England, and left the Army to settle in New Zealand. When the Waikato War began he was appointed to the New Zealand forces, and served throughout that campaign and afterwards in the wars on the West and East Coasts. He was second in command under Colonel Whitmore in the final campaign against Titokowaru in 1869.