Wikipedia

Bertram Lloyd

Ernest Bertram Lloyd FLS FRES (14 May 1881 – 9 June 1944) was an English activist, humanitarian, and naturalist. A member of the Lloyd banking family, he was a vocal campaigner for ethical and humanitarian causes, including animal welfare and rights, pacifism, women's suffrage, and reforms in sexual education, and LGBTQ+ rights. Lloyd co-founded the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports and was an active member of the Humanitarian League and the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology. A committed conscientious objector during World War I, he engaged with organisations including the Union of Democratic Control, No-Conscription Fellowship, and the Independent Labour Party. Beyond his activism, Lloyd was a translator, editor of humanitarian poetry anthologies, and a dedicated field naturalist who made notable contributions to ornithology and entomology.

Bertram Lloyd
FLS FRES
Portrait from obituary
Born
Ernest Bertram Lloyd

(1881-05-14)14 May 1881
London, England
Died9 June 1944(1944-06-09) (aged 63)
Champneys, near Tring, England
EducationMerchant Taylors' School
Occupations
  • Activist
  • humanitarian
  • naturalist
Spouse
Sylvia Colenso
​
(m. 1938)​
FamilyLloyd family

Biography

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Early life and education

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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

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Humanitarianism

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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]

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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]

Lloyd was a key member of the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology (BSSSP), founded in 1914 to promote open, rational discussions on sex and sexuality. Collaborating with figures such as Edward Carpenter and Laurence Housman, Lloyd supported reforms in sexual education, LGBTQ+ rights, and divorce laws.[10]

Pacifism

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Cover of The Paths of Glory

During the First World War, Lloyd was a conscientious objector.[2] At that time, he connected with Olive Schreiner over their shared stance on pacifism. Lloyd was involved in organisations like the Union of Democratic Control and the No-Conscription Fellowship, fostering a closely connected London pacifist community. Schreiner sought his feedback on her anti-war writings. Lloyd was also active in the Independent Labour Party.[12]

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

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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]

Naturalist career

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Lloyd, while not a specialist, was an enthusiastic and observant field naturalist with a strong focus on birds and dragonflies. He frequently contributed to British Birds, writing about topics such as the Stone-Curlew in Buckinghamshire (1921), the egg-laying habits of Grassholm Gannets (1926), and a rare sighting of a Marsh Warbler in Hertfordshire (1941). He also conducted studies on the birdlife of Texel, Holland. In Entomologist, he reported on a mass emergence of the dragonfly Coenagrion puella (1941) and documented Pembrokeshire dragonflies (1944).[3] Lloyd was also a member of the British Ornithologists' Union and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.[4]

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

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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]

Selected publications

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  • (ed.) Poems Written During the Great War, 1914–1918. London: George Allen & Unwin. 1918.
  • (ed.) The Paths of Glory: A Collection of Poems Written During the War, 1914-1919. London: George Allen & Unwin. 1919.
  • (ed.) The Great Kinship: An Anthology of Humanitarian Poetry. London: George Allen & Unwin. 1921.
  • On the Behaviour of Male Mallards with Broods. London: Macmillan. 1937.
  • (ed.) Foxhunters' Philosophy: A Garland from Five Centuries (PDF). National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports. 1939.
  • 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

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  1. ^ a b c d Benson, 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.
  2. ^ a b Preece, Rod (2011). Animal Sensibility and Inclusive Justice in the Age of Bernard Shaw. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press. p. 158. ISBN 9780774821124.
  3. ^ a b c "OBITUARIES". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. 156 (3): 199–242. August 1945. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1945.tb00394.x.
  4. ^ a b c Kirkman, F. B. (1944). "Obituary". British Birds. Vol. 38. London: H. F. & G. Witherby. p. 73.
  5. ^ W. E. G. (January 1945). "Obituary". Ibis. 87 (1): 112–113. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1945.tb01364.x. ISSN 1474-919X.
  6. ^ The New Statesman and Nation. Statesman and Nation Publishing Company, Limited. 1950. p. 709.
  7. ^ a b c Looker, Samuel L. (1960). Bertram Lloyd: Humanitarian and Pioneer (PDF). Leicester: G. C. M. Printing Service Ltd.
  8. ^ "Bertram Lloyd". Henry S. Salt Society. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  9. ^ a b Brooks, Ross (January 2021). "Weird Sex Science" in Britain, ca. 1900-1939: Narratives of Naturalisation and Eradication (PDF) (PhD thesis). Oxford Brookes University. pp. 114–115. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  10. ^ a b "Humanist Heritage: British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology". Humanist Heritage. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  11. ^ Hall, Lesley A. (1999). "Review of The Men's Share? Masculinities, Male Support and Women's Suffrage in Britain, 1890-1920". Feminist Review (63): 125–127. ISSN 0141-7789. JSTOR 1395603.
  12. ^ "E. Bertram Lloyd". Olive Schreiner Letters Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  13. ^ Varty, Anne (2 January 2017). "Women's Poetry in First World War Anthologies and Two Collections of 1916". Women's Writing. 24 (1): 37–52. doi:10.1080/09699082.2016.1233772. ISSN 0969-9082. S2CID 163709694.
  14. ^ Kendall, Tim, ed. (2013). Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. xxiv. ISBN 9780199581443.
  15. ^ Kean, Hilda (August 1998). Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain Since 1800. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-014-6.
  16. ^ Gammage, Nick. "The Colenso family and Elangeni". Amersham Museum. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
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