John Edward Lloyd

Sir John Edward Lloyd (5 May 1861 – 20 June 1947) was a Welsh historian who is credited with being the founding father of Welsh medieval studies and of creating the foundations of modern Welsh history. He was born in Liverpool, England, on 5 May 1861, to Edward Lloyd (1837-1917), a prosperous draper and a J.P., and Margaret Lloyd (née Jones) (1834-1921). In 1893 he married Clementina Miller of Aberdeen, who was a former pupil of his at Aberystwyth. They had two children, Eluned in 1897, and Edward in 1904.

Early life and education Lloyd was initially educated in a private school, 'Chatham Institute', in Liverpool. Having succeeded in his 'Oxford Local Examinations', in 1877 Lloyd enrolled in the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales, the first constituent college in the federal University of Wales, in which two years later, he passed 'the matriculation examination for London University'. However, 'his sights were set on Oxford' and in 1881 he enrolled in Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1883 he graduated from the college with a first class honours degree in Classical Moderations. Upon leaving Oxford in 1883, Lloyd then obtained his first academic position in Aberystwyth teaching English history. In 1891 he applied for the post of its College Principal. However, his application was unsuccessful. Feeling slighted, he looked for an academic post elsewhere, which he obtained in the following year in Bangor University.

Within a year of arriving in Bangor, Lloyd married Clementina (Tina) Miller, a former student from Aberdeen, Scotland, who had attended his history classes. They had two children, Eluned, who was born in 1897, and Edward, who was born in 1904. He was knighted in 1934.

Career Lloyd became a much-published and famous Welsh historian. In 1892, while he was at Bangor, Daniel Lleufer Thomas asked him to 'take on some of the Welsh entries for the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB)''', with which he 'readily complied, and between 1893 and 1900 published over one hundred entries'. Beginning in 1893 he had published 'three short bilingual textbooks for elementary (primary) schoolchildren, outlining the history of Wales from the Stone Age to the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282.' In 1906 he made a substantial contribution to the history of iron production in South Wales with his illustrated book The early history of the old South Wales iron works (1760 to 1840), which was based upon what came to be called the Maybery Papers after their initial custodian, Arthur Maybery, solicitor of Brecon, which are fundamentally linked to the history of the Brecon Ironworks.

In 1911 and 1912 Lloyd had published the first serious history of the country's formative years with his two-volume A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest. In 1919 he was admitted as a Fellow to the Society of Antiquaries of London. In 1932 he had published his Owain Glyn Dŵr (Owen Glendower). Also he became the first editor of 'Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig' (Dictionary of Welsh Biography), which was published posthumously in 1953. Its English counterpart, the Dictionary of Welsh Biography'', was launched in 1959 with Robert Thomas Jenkins as its sole editor.

Publications

The following publications are a selection of Lloyd's published output. See Jones (1948) under 'Further reading' and for additional publications.

Articles

Lloyd, J.E. 1899-1900. Wales and the coming of the Normans (1039-1093). Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. 138-44.

Books

Editorships (With Hubert Lewis)

(With R.T. Jenkins)

Footnotes