George Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd

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

Educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1901 he 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" [John Charmley: " Lord Lloyd and the Decline of the British Empire " St Martin's Press, New York 1987 ISBN 031201306X] 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. [John Charmley " Lord Lloyd " New York 1987 Chapter 2 The Lure of the East] . 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 apointement in January 1907 as a special commissioner to investigate trading prospects around the Persian Gulf.

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

During World War I 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 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. 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. 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.

Notes

Biography

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

Persondata
NAME=Lloyd, George Ambrose
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=1st Baron Lloyd
SHORT DESCRIPTION=British Conservative politician. Governor of Bombay, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Leader of the House of Lords
DATE OF BIRTH=1879
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=4 February 1941
PLACE OF DEATH=