Lloyd was born in North London on 14 May 1881.[1] He was a member of the Lloyd banking family.[2] Lloyd was privately educated at Merchant Taylors' School. He then spent two years in Germany, where he attained fluency in German. Lloyd translated several renowned works of poetry and drama from German to English.[3] On his return to London, Lloyd worked for his family's business for a number of years, but his passions ultimately lay elsewhere.[4][5]
Activism
Humanitarianism
As a young socialist, Lloyd spent time living and working at Toynbee Hall,[6] where he taught English Literature, reflecting his commitment to social service.[7]
Lloyd was an active member of the Humanitarian League and was a close associate of Henry S. Salt, with whom he shared many intellectual and social interests. Salt dedicated his book The Call of the Wildflower to "My Friends W. J. Jupp and E. Bertram Lloyd". Lloyd also edited The Great Kinship: An Anthology of Humanitarian Poetry (1921), which included two poems by Salt. At Salt's funeral, Lloyd read Salt's self-written funeral address.[8]
Sexual diversity, gender equality, and legal reform
Lloyd advocated for sexual diversity and legal reform. In a 1913 article for The New Freewoman, he praised Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's exhibit on intermediary sexual types as a groundbreaking challenge to rigid gender binaries and societal ignorance.[9] Lloyd criticised the persecution of homosexuals and called for greater tolerance, framing gender and sexuality as natural continuums;[9] he later visited Hirschfield's Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin.[10] Lloyd's support for women's suffrage was also driven by his rejection of traditional gender categories.[11]
In 1918, Lloyd published his first edited collection of anti-war poems Poems Written During the Great War, 1914–1918, the selected poems critiqued the idealisation and glamour of war.[13] In 1919, he published a further anti-war poetry collection, The Paths of Glory.[14]
Animal welfare and rights
In 1932, Lloyd co-founded the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports, where he served as Honorary Secretary for the rest of his life.[4] In 1939, he authored an engaging and educational booklet for the Society, titled Foxhunters' Philosophy: A Garland from Five Centuries.[1] Lloyd was also a keen vegetarian and wrote on the subject.[15]
Lloyd was a key figure in the Hertfordshire Natural History Society during his 20-year membership. He served as editor of the Transactions from 1935 until his death and contributed numerous articles, including "The Nesting of Garganeys at Elstree" (1931) and "The Distribution of the Grass Snake in Hertfordshire, with Notes on its Behaviour" (1936). Following the death of his friend Charles Oldham, whom he honored in British Birds and The North Western Naturalist, he edited the Society's bird reports for 1939, 1940, and 1941. Additionally, he was the Society's recorder for mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.[3]
Personal life and death
In 1938, Lloyd married Sylvia Colenso (b. 1887) in Cardigan, Wales.[16] She was an accomplished musician, and both her and her husband were passionate about music.[7]
Lloyd was a passionate athlete in his youth. He later became an avid and skilled mountaineer, exploring Norway, the Austrian and Swiss Alps, the Dolomites, and Yugoslavia, often accompanied by his wife. Earlier in life, he enjoyed rock climbing and scrambling in Wales and the Lake District, and in his later years, he cherished the beauty and solitude of Pembroke.[7]
Lloyd suffered from poor health near the end of his life. He became a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society two days before his death at Champneys, near Tring, on 9 June 1944, aged 63.[1] He composed his own epitaph, which ended "He cared not a farthing for Heaven or God, / But valued far more an inch of green sod."[1]
Poems and Miscellaneous Translations. Self-published. 1944.
A Vile Sport: Facts about Otterhunting. National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports. 1945.
(edited by James Edgar Dandy and introduction by Sylvia Lloyd) Notes on the Flora of Pembrokeshire. Arbroath. 1948.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
(with biographical note by Samuel Joseph Looker) Winter Trees and Tones. Riverside Press. 1949.
Humanitarianism and Freedom. Manchester: Humane Education Society. 1949.
References
^ abcdBenson, Robert B. (1945). "In memoriam Bertram Lloyd — 1881-1944". Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society and Field Club. 22: 57–59 – via Henry S. Salt Society.
