Lloyd, Humphrey - WWI & WWII

Rob Forsyth

"Major Lloyd’s grave stands just to the left of a holly tree that overhangs the path leading from the Church to the New (Lower) Churchyard. It is clear for all to see and yet the name and story of this remarkable man evaded my research. Bill Drake knew of him because he was in the same regiment as Bill’s brother and Bill had even written an article about him for the November 1978 issue of The Deddington News and he also places a Remembrance Day Cross on his grave each year. Of course, until the book was published, Bill did not know that I did not know and, remarkably, no one else recalled him either at the time; but now that I have read Bill’s article and spoken to three people who knew him personally and talked to his old school and regimental museum I know a lot more. His exploits deserve to be recorded if only because he lived in our parish for nearly 20 years and he does not seem to have anyone else to remember him.

These are the opening words of an article detailing the military career of this remarkable soldier. It is contained in The Supplement (2012) to the publication A Parish ar War (2011). It recounts how he served in WWI, was captured and escaped from a PoW camp, was recaptured and courtmartialled by the Germans and escaped successfully a second time! Post war he served in Latvia and Finland assisting British efforts to help the White Russian Army during the Bolshevik Revolution. Later he went to Shanghai in the Far East, but little is known of him there or later until he re-appears again in 1943 as the Military Attaché at the British Embassy in Tehran at the time of the conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. A German plot to blow up all three men was foiled at that time.

He retired to Deddington afer the war, living first at the Holcome Hotel run by Charles and Gertrude West and later as a lodger with Gertrude West in Stonefield on the Hempton Road. As the linked article relates, and as photographs in his album in the Gallery show (see end note) he filled his days with hunting and fishing. In 1965 he died in hospital following a heart stroke while out riding.  

John Pearson, who is  grandson of the Wests, was a young boy at the time and recalls him being tall and a bit stern. Still in John's possession, passed down from the family, are several photograph albums and this hand written letter from King George V dated 1918. 

Elderly members of the parish remembered 'The Major' as being somewhat taciturn about his service life. All the pointers are that he was deeply involved in intelligence activities of one sort or another from 1918 right through to the end of WWII so he would definitely be tactiturn about them. Even his rank raises a question mark. While his gravestone records him as Major, a card in John's possession (which dates from the time he was stationed in the Tehran Embassy - in French because that was the language of diplomacy) refers to him as a Lieut.Colonel.

The final mystery is why did he leave over £80,000 - just under £2M today (2023) -  to a lady in Dorset who died aged 85 still single. Was it unrequited love or was he never brave enough to declare himself to her or...?

More images can be seen in an album in the Gallery