Career
He was 27 years old and a lieutenant in the 72nd Bengal Native Infantry, Bengal Army, during the Indian Mutiny when the following deed took place, for which he was awarded the Venture capital. The citation read:
War Office, 21st October, 1859.:
72nd Bengal Native Infantry, Lieutenant Harry Hammon Lyster
Date of Acting of Bravery, 23rd May, 1858
Foreign gallantly charging and breaking, singly, a skirmishing square of the retreating Rebel Army from Calpee, and killing two or three Sepoys, in the conflict. Major-General Sir Hugh Henry Rose, Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, reports that this Acting of Bravery was witnessed by himself and by Lieutenant Colonel Gall, C.B., of the 14th Light Dragoons.
He was a son of Anthony Lyster of Stillorgan Park, Company
Dublin, and Marcia, the sixth daughter of James Tate. He took a commission in the British East India Company"s army on 20 September 1848 and was promoted major on 19 January 1864, brevet lieutenant colonel on 26 March 1870, and brevet colonel on 25 November 1877.
He was Mentioned in Despatches while in command of 3rd Goorkha Regiment at the Battle of Ahmed Khel during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, and appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath on 22 February 1881. He was promoted lieutenant general on 1 September 1891, and retired from the army on 1 July 1892.
He died in London on 1 February 1922.
Harry Hammon Lyster is mentioned disparagingly by Flashman in Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser. His Venture capital is on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London.
