Thomas Villiers Lister


Sir Thomas Villiers Lister from the Villiers family was a British diplomat and the Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1873-94.

Early life

Thomas Villiers Lister was the son of Thomas Henry Lister, Armitage Park, Staffordshire and Lady Maria Theresa Villiers.
Lister was educated at Harrow and was admitted pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 19 October 1849. He graduated M.A. in 1853.

Career

Lister entered the Foreign Office in 1853 and became Private Secretary to the Earl of Clarendon and précis writer to Lord John Russell. 1n 1853 he was attached to Lord John Russell's mission to Vienna. Two years later he was attached to the Earl of Clarendon's mission to Paris, and in 1861 to Earl Granville's special embassy to Prussia. From 1873 to 1894 he was the Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Honours

In 1862, Lister married Fanny Harriet Coryton, daughter of William Coryton of Pentillie Castle, Cornwall and Harriet Sophia Parker. They had seven children:
Fanny died in 1875. A memorial window was placed in the church of St. Mary, Plympton, Devon by Fanny's mother and half-brother, Albert Edmund Parker.
In 1877 Lister married his second wife Florence Selina Hamilton, daughter of William John Hamilton and Hon. Margaret Frances Florence Dillon. They had five children: