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==Early life==
==Early life==
In 1901 Lloyd joined the family firm [[Stewarts & Lloyds]] as its youngest director. In 1903 he first became involved with the [[tariff reform]] movement of [[Joseph Chamberlain]]. In 1904 he fell in love with Lady Constance Knox, daughter of the [[Uchter Knox, 5th Earl of Ranfurly|5th Earl of Ranfurly]], who forbad the match with his daughter considering him unsuitable (she then married Evelyn Milnes Gaskell in November 1905).<ref>Gamble, Cynthia, 2015 (in production) Wenlock Abbey 1857-1919: A Shropshire Country House and the Milnes Gaskell Family, Ellingham Press.</ref> In 1905 he turned down an offer by Stewarts & Lloyds of a steady position in London and chose to embark on a study of the East in the British Empire. Through the efforts of his friends Samuel Pepys Cockerell, working in the commercial department of the Foreign Office, and [[Gertrude Bell]], whom he had come to know, he started work as an unpaid honorary attaché in [[Constantinople]]. At "Old Stamboul"<ref>John Charmley: '' Lord Lloyd and the Decline of the British Empire '' St Martin's Press, New York 1987 ISBN 0-312-01306-X</ref> – as he came to remember the Embassy of Sir Nicholas O'Conor – he worked together with Laurence Oliphant, Percy Loraine and [[Alexander Cadogan]]. There also he first met [[Mark Sykes]] and [[Aubrey Herbert]]. In April 1906 Aubrey Herbert joined him on an exploration of the state of the [[Baghdad Railway]].<ref>John Charmley '' Lord Lloyd '' New York 1987 Chapter 2 The Lure of the East</ref> His confidential memorandum of November 1906 on the [[Hejaz railway]] gave a detailed account of many economic problems. This, and other papers – on Turkish finance, for example – led to his appointment in January 1907 as a special commissioner to investigate trading prospects around the [[Persian Gulf]].
In 1901 Lloyd joined the family firm [[Stewarts & Lloyds]] as its youngest director. In 1903 he first became involved with the [[tariff reform]] movement of [[Joseph Chamberlain]]. In 1904 he fell in love with Lady Constance Knox, daughter of the [[Uchter Knox, 5th Earl of Ranfurly|5th Earl of Ranfurly]], who forbad the match with his daughter considering him unsuitable (she then married Evelyn Milnes Gaskell in November 1905).<ref>Gamble, Cynthia, (2015) Wenlock Abbey 1857-1919: A Shropshire Country House and the Milnes Gaskell Family, Ellingham Press.</ref> In 1905 he turned down an offer by Stewarts & Lloyds of a steady position in London and chose to embark on a study of the East in the British Empire. Through the efforts of his friends Samuel Pepys Cockerell, working in the commercial department of the Foreign Office, and [[Gertrude Bell]], whom he had come to know, he started work as an unpaid honorary attaché in [[Constantinople]]. At "Old Stamboul"<ref>John Charmley: '' Lord Lloyd and the Decline of the British Empire '' St Martin's Press, New York 1987 ISBN 0-312-01306-X</ref> – as he came to remember the Embassy of Sir Nicholas O'Conor – he worked together with Laurence Oliphant, Percy Loraine and [[Alexander Cadogan]]. There also he first met [[Mark Sykes]] and [[Aubrey Herbert]]. In April 1906 Aubrey Herbert joined him on an exploration of the state of the [[Baghdad Railway]].<ref>John Charmley '' Lord Lloyd '' New York 1987 Chapter 2 The Lure of the East</ref> His confidential memorandum of November 1906 on the [[Hejaz railway]] gave a detailed account of many economic problems. This, and other papers – on Turkish finance, for example – led to his appointment in January 1907 as a special commissioner to investigate trading prospects around the [[Persian Gulf]].


==Political career==
==Political career==

Revision as of 14:30, 24 August 2015

This article is about the British politician. For other persons named George Lloyd, see George Lloyd (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable
The Lord Lloyd
GCSI GCIE PC DSO
Governor of Bombay
In office
16 December 1918 – 8 December 1923
MonarchGeorge V
Preceded byMarquess of Willingdon
Succeeded bySir Leslie Orme Wilson
High Commissioner in Egypt
In office
1925–1929
MonarchGeorge V
Preceded byThe Viscount Allenby
Succeeded bySir Percy Loraine, Bt
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office
12 May 1940 – 4 February 1941
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byMalcolm MacDonald
Succeeded byThe Lord Moyne
Leader of the House of Lords
In office
December 1940 – 4 February 1941
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byThe Viscount Halifax
Succeeded byThe Lord Moyne
Personal details
Born19 September 1879 (1879-09-19)
Olton Hall[1]
Died4 February 1941(1941-02-04) (aged 61)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)Hon. Blanche Lascelles
(1880–1969)
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

George Ambrose Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd[2] GCSI, GCIE, DSO, PC (19 September 1879 – 4 February 1941) was a British Conservative politician strongly associated with the "Diehard" wing of the party.

Background and education

Lloyd was the son of Sampson Samuel Lloyd (whose namesake father was also a Member of Parliament) and Jane Emilia, daughter of Thomas Lloyd. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He coxed the Cambridge crew in the 1899 and 1900 Boat Races.[3] He left without taking a degree, unsettled by the deaths of both his parents in 1899, and made a tour of India.[4]

Early life

In 1901 Lloyd joined the family firm Stewarts & Lloyds as its youngest director. In 1903 he first became involved with the tariff reform movement of Joseph Chamberlain. In 1904 he fell in love with Lady Constance Knox, daughter of the 5th Earl of Ranfurly, who forbad the match with his daughter considering him unsuitable (she then married Evelyn Milnes Gaskell in November 1905).[5] In 1905 he turned down an offer by Stewarts & Lloyds of a steady position in London and chose to embark on a study of the East in the British Empire. Through the efforts of his friends Samuel Pepys Cockerell, working in the commercial department of the Foreign Office, and Gertrude Bell, whom he had come to know, he started work as an unpaid honorary attaché in Constantinople. At "Old Stamboul"[6] – as he came to remember the Embassy of Sir Nicholas O'Conor – he worked together with Laurence Oliphant, Percy Loraine and Alexander Cadogan. There also he first met Mark Sykes and Aubrey Herbert. In April 1906 Aubrey Herbert joined him on an exploration of the state of the Baghdad Railway.[7] His confidential memorandum of November 1906 on the Hejaz railway gave a detailed account of many economic problems. This, and other papers – on Turkish finance, for example – led to his appointment in January 1907 as a special commissioner to investigate trading prospects around the Persian Gulf.

Political career

At the January 1910 general election Lloyd was elected as a Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for West Staffordshire, marrying Blanche Lascelles the following year.

In February 1914, Lloyd was adopted as Unionist Parliamentary candidate for Shrewsbury ahead of the next general election (expected no later than 1916[8]) when the sitting MP, unrelated namesake George Butler Lloyd, intended to retire.[9] The general election and his candidacy were both forestalled by the outbreak of the First World War, while the sitting member continued to hold his seat until 1922. He and another backbench colleague in Parliament, Leopold Amery, lobbied the Conservative leadership to press for an immediate declaration of war against Germany on 1 August 1914.[10] As a Lieutenant in the Warwickshire Yeomanry, Lloyd was called up after Britain entered the war three days later.[11]

During that war he served on the staff of Sir Ian Hamilton at Gallipoli landing with the ANZACs on the first day of that campaign; took part in a special British mission to Petrograd to improve Anglo-Russian liaison; visited Basra to update his study of commerce in the Persian Gulf; and, after a time in Cairo, with T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Bureau in Hejaz, the Negev and the Sinai desert.[10] He reached the rank of Captain in the Warwickshire Yeomanry (in which regiment he continued to hold rank until 1925[12]) and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and made Companion of the Indian Empire in 1917. For services in the same war he also received the Russian Empire's Order of St Anne, 3rd Class[3] and the Order of Al Nahda (2nd class) of the Kingdom of Hejaz.[13]

In conjunction with Edward Wood (later Earl of Halifax) he wrote The Great Opportunity in 1918. This book was meant to be a Conservative challenge to the Lloyd George coalition and stressed devolution of power from Westminster and the importance of reviving English industry and agriculture.

In December 1918 he was appointed Governor of Bombay and made KCIE. His principal activities while Governor were reclaiming land for housing in the Back Bay area of the city of Bombay and building the Lloyd Barrage (now Sukkur Barrage) an irrigation scheme, both of which were funded by loans raised in India instead of in England. Lloyd's administration was the first to raise such funds locally. His province was one of the centres of Indian nationalist unrest, to deal with which he insisted in 1921 on the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi, who was subsequently gaoled for six years for sedition.[10] He completed his term as Governor in 1923 and was made a Privy Counsellor[14] and GCSI.[15]

He returned to Parliament again for Eastbourne in 1924, serving until 1925, when he was made Baron Lloyd, of Dolobran in the County of Montgomery, called after his Welsh ancestral home.[10] Following his ennoblement, he was appointed High Commissioner to Egypt, serving until his resignation was forced upon him by Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson in 1929. His views and experience formed the background of a self-justifying two-volume book, Egypt Since Cromer (published 1933-34).[10]

During the 1930s he was one of the most prominent opponents of proposals to grant Indian Home Rule, working alongside Winston Churchill against the National Government. From 1931 to 1935 Lord Lloyd employed James Lees-Milne as one of his male secretaries. When Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940, he appointed Lloyd as Secretary of State for the Colonies and in December of that year he conferred on him the additional job of Leader of the House of Lords.

Private life and character

Lord Lloyd was an Anglo-Catholic, and élitist. He firmly believed the British upper-classes were uniquely fitted to rule a colonial Empire. He was an excellent administrator but he was not fond of speaking in public. As a repressed homosexual he surrounded himself with handsome young men. Although an ardent anti-semite himself he was suspicious of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement, which he saw as a threat to Britain.[16] He was agitating for rearmament against Germany as early as 1930, before Churchill did.[17]

Family

Lord Lloyd married Blanche Lascelles, daughter of the Hon. Frederick Lascelles, in 1911. He died of myeloid leukaemia at a clinic in Marylebone, London, in February 1941, aged 61 and was buried at St Ippolyts, Hertfordshire.[18] He was succeeded in the barony by his son, Alexander. Lady Lloyd died in December 1969, aged 89.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ stanford.edu George Ambrose Lloyd 1st Baron Lloyd DSO GCSI GCIE PC - I20543 - Individual Information
  2. ^ James Lees-Milne, Ancestral Voices, London:Chatto & Windus, 1975, p. 6, n. 1
  3. ^ a b "Lloyd, George Ambrose (LLT898GA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 34. Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 124. ISBN 0-19-861378-4.Article by Jason Tombs.
  5. ^ Gamble, Cynthia, (2015) Wenlock Abbey 1857-1919: A Shropshire Country House and the Milnes Gaskell Family, Ellingham Press.
  6. ^ John Charmley: Lord Lloyd and the Decline of the British Empire St Martin's Press, New York 1987 ISBN 0-312-01306-X
  7. ^ John Charmley Lord Lloyd New York 1987 Chapter 2 The Lure of the East
  8. ^ Based on term laid down by 1911 Parliament Act
  9. ^ "The Representation of Shrewsbury - Mr Butler Lloyd to Retire at the Next Election - Parliamentary Unionist Candidate Adopted". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 27 February 1914. p. 2.
  10. ^ a b c d e Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 34. Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 125.
  11. ^ "War Jottings". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 14 August 1914. p. 3.
  12. ^ Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1925. Kelly's. p. 1053.
  13. ^ "London Gazette". 8 March 1920.
  14. ^ "No. 32893". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1924.
  15. ^ "No. 32909". The London Gazette. 19 February 1924.
  16. ^ Michael Bloch, biography of James Lees-Milne, page 57, 2009
  17. ^ Lord Lloyd and the decline of the British Empire J Charmley pp. 1, 2, 213ff.
  18. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 34. 2004. p. 127.

Biography

Lord Lloyd and the decline of the British Empire, John Charmley, Weidenfeld 1987

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for West Staffordshire
January 1910 – 1918 		Constituency abolished
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Eastbourne
1924–1925 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Bombay
1918–1923 		Succeeded by
Preceded by British High Commissioner in Egypt
1925–1929 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of State for the Colonies
1940–1941 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Leader of the House of Lords
1940–1941
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords
1940–1941 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Lloyd
1925–1941 		Succeeded by

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