Sir Thomas Villiers Lister (7 May 1832 – 26 February 1902) from the Villiers family was a British diplomat and the Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1873-94.
Contents
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 (Matric. Michs. 1850) 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.