Alan Lloyd was a highly respected and effective artillery officer whose death on the Somme in August deeply shocked both his family and his fellow soldiers.
Born into a middle-class Quaker family in Birmingham in 1889, he had travelled both in South America and East Africa, before he became engaged to Dorothy Hewetson of Boston Spa in January 1914. When war broke out, Lloyd immediately volunteered and it was on his honeymoon in August that he learned he had been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Royal Artillery.
He joined C Battery, 78th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, part of the 17th Division, at Swanage in October 1914. They embarked for France in July 1915, by which time his wife was six months pregnant. He was serving near Ypres when their son, David, was born in October. He returned home on leave for Christmas.
In June 1916 the 17th Division moved to the Somme. By July, Lloyd was writing cheerful letters about the Battle. He believed the British were winning. At the end of July, Lloyd’s battery moved to a position north of Montauban opposite a quarry to support the Division’s operations in Delville Wood. Just after midnight on 4 August an attack was made in the wood. German artillery fire cut all communications. Lloyd worked back from his observation post to mend the telephone wires. On the slopes of Longueval Ridge, he was hit by a shell and died within 20 minutes. His body was taken back to Bécordel-Bécourt, where he was buried on 5 August. Ten days later news arrived that he had been awarded the Military Cross.
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Gunner John Manning was with Lloyd when he was killed. Some weeks after the funeral, he placed a simple sign on Lloyd’s grave: ‘He died as he lived brave and fearless a true British hero’. After the war, his family used the first part of Manning's tribute as their inscription on his permanent headstone.
