A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Lloyd, Edward
LLOYD, K.H., F.R.S. (Captain, 1821. f-p., 15; h-p., 34.)
Edward Lloyd entered the Navy, in Sept. 1798, as Midshipman, on board the Dictator 64, Capt. Jas. Hardy, under whom, besides sharing in a multiplicity of particular services, he attended the expedition of 1801 to Egypt, where he commanded a boat at the debarkation of the troops in Aboukir Bay on 8 March, witnessed the battles fought on 13 and 21 of the same month, and had the subsequent charge of a djerm employed on the river Nile in keeping up a communication between Rosetta and the Anglo-Turkish shipping. While on the latter service he was intrusted with the care of Madame Menou, who was going to join her husband, the French Commander-in-Chief, at Alexandria. He continued in his djerm on Lake Mareotis until compelled to return to the Dictator by the effects of a severe contusion, which his zeal had prevented his attending to when it first occurred. In March, 1802, Mr. Lloyd joined, for a short period, the Hermes sloop, Capt. Jas. Watson; and in the following Oct. he became Master’s Mate of the Leda 38,[1] Capts. Jas. Hardy and Robt. Honyman. At the commencement of the late war we find him in the constant voluntary command of a boat near Boulogne, and on the night of 29 July, 1804, distinguishing himself, under Lieut. Neil M‘Lean, who was killed, in a most gallant but unsuccessful attempt to cut a mortar-vessel, on which occasion only 14 out of 38 of the British succeeded in effecting their escape. Fortunately for him, Mr. Lloyd, although wounded, was among the number that got off. In consideration of the injury he received, and of his gallant conduct, the Patriotic Society voted him a pecuniary reward, and presented him with an honorary testimonial. Among numerous other affairs with the enemy’s flotilla in which he took part, we may instance the capture, 24 April, 1805, of seven schuyts, armed with 18 guns and 1 howitzer, and having on board 168 men. About the same period, too, he volunteered his services in a catamaran expedition, and placed one of the explosion machines in the precise position he had been directed. On 1 Nov. 1805 Mr. Lloyd, as officer of the middle watch, had the fortune, by means of a careful look-out and timely exertion, of saving the Leda from destruction, at a moment when the King George transport and Britannia Indiaman were both totally lost by striking on the Roccas, near Fernando Norunha. After assisting at the reduction, in Jan. 1806, of the Cape of Good Hope, where he was employed in bringing forward the field-pieces and howitzer belonging to the division of the army that first effected a landing under Brigadier-General Ferguson, he removed to the Diadem 64, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Home Popham, who, on 10 of the ensuing March, nominated him Acting-Lieutenant of the Volontaire frigate, Capt. Hon. Josceline Percy. Exchanging soon afterwards, in a similar capacity, into the Raisonnable 64, Capt. Josias Rowley, to which ship he was confirmed 14 Jan. 1808, Mr. Lloyd displayed, during an attachment to her of four years, a considerable degree of zeal, courage, and ability, and was foremost to volunteer his services on every occasion of difficulty or danger. Landing at first in the Rio de la Plata in command of a detachment of seamen styled the “Royal Blues,” he assisted in the attacks upon Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, and partook, latterly as Aide-de-Camp to Capt. Rowley, in every military operation which preceded the final evacuation of Spanish America in the summer of 1807. When next at the blockade of the Isles of France and Bourbon, he frequently accompanied the present Sir Nesbit Josiah Willoughby in boat expeditions alongshore; and was frequently employed in reconnoitring the strength of the enemy’s positions. He once, while so engaged, in a ten-oared cutter, boarded, carried, and brought out, under a heavy cross fire from two batteries, a large armed ship named the Tadg Bax although moored with springs and fully prepared for defence. Thirty-two of the enemy were on the occasion taken prisoners. On 21 Sept. 1809 Mr. Lloyd had the misfortune to be a second time severely wounded, when serving on shore as a volunteer in command of the Raisonnable’s small-arm men, at the capture of St. Paul’s, in the Ile de Bourbon.[2] In July, 1810, having followed Capt. Rowley into the Boadicea frigate, he united in the attack upon Bourbon itself, where his conduct obtained him the thanks of Lieut.-Colonel Keating,[3] and had confided to him the difficult task of placing a transport as a breakwater to facilitate the landing of the troops. After the conquest of the island he was left in charge of the Signal-posts for the purpose of reporting the motions of a French squadron then blockading it; an arrangement which led to the recovery of H.M. ships Africaine and Ceylon, and the capture of La Vénus of 44 guns, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Hamelin, senior officer of the enemy’s force in the Indian Ocean. On 28 Nov. 1810, being at the time First-Lieutenant of the Africaine, flag-ship of Vice- Admiral Bertie, Mr. Lloyd, previously to the first debarkation of the army at the Mauritius, landed by himself, with the view of ascertaining whether there lay any hostile force concealed behind the sea-wall that girted the island. During the operations that followed he joined the naval brigade under Capt. Wm. Augustus Montagu; and was directed, in addition to his other duties, to communicate the movements of the troops, by telegraph, to the Admiral. In the advance on Port Louis, Mr. Lloyd, who received the first flag of truce sent out by Governor-General De Caen, had charge of the guns with the leading column; and so signalized himself by his zeal, ability, and gallantry, that he drew forth the high encomiums of Capt. Montagu and the military Commander-in-Chief, and was warmly recommended by Vice-Admiral Bertie to the notice of the Admiralty. Being invested, 6 Dec. 1811, with the acting-command of the Hesper sloop, he was immediately selected by Major-General Abercromby to convey him and his staff to Bombay; on his arrival at which place he had the mortification to find himself superseded by the present Capt. Barrington Reynolds, who had been appointed by the then recently deceased Vice-Admiral Drury. Unwilling to return home, he continued as a passenger on board the Hesper until her arrival at Malacca, where, meeting with Lieut.-General Sir Sam. Auchmuty, he volunteered to serve under him during the Javese campaign. Landing accordingly with that officer’s staff at Chillingching, he bore a part in the skirmish between the advanced divisions of the British and Dutch armies, which ended in the defeat of the latter and the capture of the important post of Weltervreeden. He was also present when the enemy made a sortie from Meester Cornelis; where, it appears, he assisted in storming their entrenched camp. On his arrival home in Dec. 1811, in the Caroline frigate, Capt. Christ. Cole, Capt. Lloyd had the satisfaction of finding that he had been confirmed a Commander on 9 of the previous May. His next appointment was, 21 Jan. 1814, to the Raven 16, in which vessel, prior to her being paid off in Oct. 1815, he served at the blockade of the enemy’s flotilla at Ter Veere during the occupation of the East Scheldt by the fleet under Admiral Wm. Young – witnessed the operations against Balthz – encountered on his passage to Halifax a hurricane, which compelled him to throw half his guns overboard – received the public thanks of Sir Ralph Woodford, Governor of Trinidad, for his exertions in obtaining some exclusive and important privileges for British merchants trading to the Spanish Main – and succeeded, while in charge of the Gulf of Paria, in putting a stop to a system of bloodshed which political animosity, prior to his arrival, had carried to a frightful extent. From the period the Raven was put out of commission, Capt. Lloyd remained on shore until appointed, 9 Aug. 1820, to the Esk 20, fitting for the Leeward Islands. He was superseded on being advanced to his present rank 19 July, 1821; since which period, unsuccessful in his applications for employment, he has remained on half-pay.
Capt. Lloyd was nominated a K.H. 1 Jan. 1834. He married, in Aug. 1816, Colin Campbell, youngest daughter of the late Jas. Baillie, Esq., of Ealing Grove, co. Middlesex, formerly M.P. for Horsham, in Sussex; by whom he has issue. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.