| The Right Honourable The Lord Lloyd GCSI, GCIE, PC, DSO |
|
|---|---|
| Governor of Bombay | |
| In office 16 December 1918 – 8 December 1923 |
|
| Monarch | George V |
| Preceded by | Marquess of Willingdon |
| Succeeded by | Sir Leslie Orme Wilson |
| High Commissioner in Egypt | |
| In office 1925–1929 |
|
| Monarch | George V |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Allenby |
| Succeeded by | Sir Percy Loraine, Bt |
| Secretary of State for the Colonies | |
| In office 12 May 1940 – 4 February 1941 |
|
| Monarch | George VI |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Malcolm MacDonald |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Moyne |
| Leader of the House of Lords | |
| In office December 1940 – 4 February 1941 |
|
| Monarch | George VI |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Halifax |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Moyne |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 September 1879 |
| Died | 4 February 1941 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Hon. Blanche Lascelles (1880–1969) |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
George Ambrose Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd of Dolobran [1] GCSI, GCIE, DSO, PC (19 September 1879 – 4 February 1941) was a British Conservative politician strongly associated with the "Diehard" wing of the party.
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Lloyd was the son of Sampson Samuel Lloyd and Jane Emilia, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He coxed the Cambridge crew in the 1899 and 1900 Boat Races.[2]
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 1905 he turned down an offer by Stewart& 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 who he had come to know, he started work as an unpaid honorary attaché in Constantinople. At "Old Stamboul"[3] 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.[4] 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 appointement in January 1907 as a special commissioner to investigate trading prospects around the Persian Gulf.
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. During the First World War he served on the staff of Sir Ian Hamilton at Gallipoli landing with the ANZACs on the first day of that campaign and, after a time in Cairo, with T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Bureau in Hejaz, the Negev and the Sinai desert. He reached the rank of Captain in the Warwickshire Yeomanry and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1917.
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 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. He completed his term as Governor in 1922 and was made a Privy Counsellor and GCSI.
In the 1920s he served as High Commissioner to Egypt until his resignation was forced by Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson. 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. 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 the additional job of Leader of the House of Lords. However, Lloyd died in office two months later.
Lord Lloyd was an Anglo-Catholic, and élitist and a firm believer in the unique capability of the British upper-classes 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 whom he saw as a threat to Britain.[5]
Lord Lloyd married the Hon. Blanche, daughter of the Hon. Frederick Lascelles, in 1911. He died in February 1941, aged 61, and was succeeded in the barony by his son, Alexander. Lady Lloyd died in December 1969, aged 89.
Lord Lloyd and the decline of the British Empire, John Charmley, Weidenfeld 1987
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry McLaren |
Member of Parliament for West Staffordshire January 1910 – 1918 |
Constituency abolished |
| Preceded by Rupert Gwynne |
Member of Parliament for Eastbourne 1924–1925 |
Succeeded by William Reginald Hall |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by The Lord Willingdon |
Governor of Bombay 1918–1923 |
Succeeded by Leslie Orme Wilson |
| Preceded by The Viscount Allenby |
British High Commissioner in Egypt 1925–1929 |
Succeeded by Sir Percy Loraine |
| Preceded by Malcolm MacDonald |
Secretary of State for the Colonies 1940–1941 |
Succeeded by The Lord Moyne |
| Preceded by The Viscount Halifax |
Leader of the House of Lords 1940–1941 |
|
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by The Viscount Halifax |
Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords 1940–1941 |
Succeeded by The Lord Moyne |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Lloyd 1925–1941 |
Succeeded by Alexander Lloyd |