John Davies Knatchbull Lloyd

John Davies Knatchbull Lloyd (28 April 1900 – 13 December 1978), generally known as J. D. K. Lloyd or The Widow Lloyd, was an antiquarian researcher, public servant and notable figure in the memoirs of many of the notable figures of the twentieth century, including Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell.

Early life and education

Lloyd was born on 28 April 1900, in Kensington, London, the elder son of John Maurice Edward Lloyd (1844-1910), M.A., a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, and Alice Norton (d. 1906), daughter of Major-General Charles Stirling Dundas, son of the 26th Chief of Clan Dundas. Her mother, Mary Louisa, was daughter of Sir Norton Joseph Knatchbull, 10th Baronet.[1] The Lloyd family had lived in the town of Montgomery for centuries, descending from Maurice Lloyd, Capital Bailiff of Montgomery in 1686.[2] Lloyd's younger brother, Wyndham Edward Buckley Lloyd (1901-1980), F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., was a medical doctor and writer on medical history.[3]

Lloyd was educated at Winchester School and Trinity College Oxford[4] (M.A.), and was the founder of the Hypocrites' Club, which included among its members Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, Robert Byron and many other prominent figures of the time.[5]

Career

He received the nickname 'the Widow' in reference to a shaving lotion, 'The Widow Lloyd's Euxesis'. Lloyd's name appears in conjunction with this nickname in the journals and letters of many of his contemporaries for decades afterward.[6][7] Lloyd spent his life devoted to antiquarian research and in public service to his community.

Public service career
  • 1929-1946: Secretary of the council for the preservation of rural Wales.
  • 1934: Justice of the Peace
  • 1937-1967: Secretary of the Powysland Club.
  • 1940: High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire[8]
  • 1948-1951: Chairman of the Montgomeryshire Health Executive Council
  • 1953-1955: Chairman of Montgomeryshire Planning Committee
  • 1954: President of the Cambrian Archaeological Association
  • 1956-1969: editor of Archaeologia Cambrensis
  • 1957-1974: Chairman of the Montgomeryshire County library Committee
  • 1957: Awarded OBE
  • 1960: Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Powys
  • 1967-1974: A Commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales
  • 1969: Honorary LLD from the University of Wales
  • Mayor of Montgomery: 1932-1938 and 1961–1962
  • Member of the Historic Buildings Council for Wales
  • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries

J. D. K. Lloyd wrote many articles and guides to Montgomery. He donated Dolforwyn Castle to the Welsh Ancient Monument Board (now Cadw) in 1955.[9][10]

On the death of his uncle William Llewellyn Lloyd in 1925, Lloyd took over as head of the family, which appeared in Burke's Landed Gentry as "of Plas Trefaldwyn" and later "formerly of Castell Forwyn", the latter reflecting Lloyd's sale of that house in 1948 (retaining the estate) to live at Bryn Cadwrfa.[11]

Lloyd died on 13 December 1978.[12][13]

References
  1. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 1, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, pp. 478, 1221
  2. Burke's Landed Gentry, 17th edition, ed. L. G. Pine, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1952, p. 1539
  3. The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, Exeter volume, the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994, pg 104
  4. Edward Burra: Twentieth Century Eye, Jane Stevenson, Pimlico, 2008, pg 90
  5. "AP The Anthony Powell Newsletter 65" (PDF). anthonypowell. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  6. Edward Burra: Twentieth Century Eye, Jane Stevenson, Pimlico, 2008, pg 90
  7. Diaries 1971-1983, James Lees-Milne, John Murray, 2008, p. 243
  8. "No. 34807". The London Gazette. 8 March 1940. p. 11382.
  9. The Montgomeryshire Collections, coll. vols 59-61, Clifton Press, 1968, p. 39
  10. Current Archaeology, coll. issues 108-120, 1988, A. & W. Selkirk, p. 420
  11. Burke's Landed Gentry, 17th edition, ed. L. G. Pine, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1952, p. 1539
  12. The Antiquaries Journal, vol. 59, issue 2, 1979, p. 551
  13. Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. 129, W. Pickering, 1981, p. 167


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