Selwyn Lloyd

The Lord Selwyn-Lloyd
Lloyd in 1960
Speaker of the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom
In office
12 January 1971 – 3 February 1976
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime Minister
Preceded byHorace King
Succeeded byGeorge Thomas
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
In office
16 October 1964 – 4 August 1965
LeaderSir Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded byHerbert Bowden
Succeeded byFred Peart
Leader of the House of Commons
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office
18 October 1963 – 16 October 1964
Prime MinisterSir Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded byIain Macleod
Succeeded byThe Earl of Longford
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office
27 July 1960 – 13 July 1962
Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan
Preceded byDerick Heathcoat Amory
Succeeded byReginald Maudling
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office
22 December 1955 – 27 July 1960
Prime Minister
Preceded byHarold Macmillan
Succeeded bySir Alec Douglas-Home
Minister of Defence
In office
7 April 1955 – 20 December 1955
Prime MinisterAnthony Eden
Preceded byHarold Macmillan
Succeeded byWalter Monckton
Minister of Supply
In office
18 October 1954 – 7 April 1955
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byDuncan Sandys
Succeeded byReginald Maudling
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
8 March 1976 – 17 May 1978
Life peerage
Member of Parliament
for Wirral
In office
5 July 1945 – 11 March 1976
Preceded byAlan Crosland Graham
Succeeded byDavid Hunt
Personal details
Born
John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd

(1904-07-28)28 July 1904
West Kirby, Cheshire, England
Died17 May 1978(1978-05-17) (aged 73)
Preston Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire, England
Political party
Spouse
Elizabeth Marshall
(m. 1951; div. 1957)
(died 2010)
Children1
Alma mater
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch British Army
Years of service1937–1955
RankColonel
UnitRoyal Artillery
Battles / wars
AwardsCommander of the Order of the British Empire
Mentioned in despatches (2x)
Territorial Decoration
Legion of Merit (Commander)

John Selwyn Brooke Selwyn-Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, CH, CBE, TD, PC, QC, DL (28 July 1904 – 17 May 1978)[1][2] was a British politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1971 to 1976, having previously held various ministerial positions under Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home between 1954 and 1964. A member of the Conservative Party,[a] Lloyd served as Foreign Secretary from 1955 to 1960 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1960 to 1962. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wirral from 1945 to 1976.

Born and raised in Cheshire, Lloyd was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and served on Hoylake Urban District Council, by which time he had become a Conservative Party sympathiser. During the Second World War he rose to be Deputy Chief of Staff of Second Army, playing an important role in planning sea transport to the Normandy beachhead and reaching the acting rank of brigadier.

Elected to Parliament in 1945 as a Conservative, he held ministerial office from 1951, eventually rising to be Foreign Secretary under Prime Minister Anthony Eden from April 1955. His tenure coincided with the Suez Crisis, for which he at first attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement, before reluctantly assisting with Eden's wish to negotiate collusion with France and Israel as a prelude to military action. He continued as Foreign Secretary under the premiership of Harold Macmillan until July 1960, when he was moved to the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this job he set up the NEDC, but became an increasingly unpopular figure because of the contractionary measures which he felt compelled to take, including the "Pay Pause" of July 1961, culminating in the sensational Liberal victory at the Orpington by-election in March 1962. In July 1962 Macmillan dismissed him from the Cabinet, making him the highest-profile casualty in the reshuffle known as the "Night of the Long Knives".

He returned to office under Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home as Leader of the House of Commons (1963–64), and was elected Speaker of the House of Commons from 1971 until his retirement in 1976.

  1. ^ "Former Speaker Selwyn Lloyd is dead". The Guardian (London). Reuters. 18 May 1978. p. 1. Lord Selwyn-Lloyd, the Tory elder statesman who was Speaker of the House of Commons for five years, died at his home in Oxfordshire last night.
  2. ^ "Lord Selwyn-Lloyd, 73". The Boston Globe. UPI. 18 May 1978. p. 2. Lord Selwyn-Lloyd... died yesterday at the age of 73


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