A Family History of the Illustrious, Notorious and Eccentric Lloyds of Birmingham, Brigstock and Pipewell Hall - Flipbook - Page 128
DAVID LLEWELLYN LLOYD Uncle David
1910 - 1996
arliest memory of Uncle David was being taken along as a small boy in the 30s to see his Tiger
biplane outside it's hangar in a field at Pipewell on the road to Desborough. Apparently,
dfather Lloyd came to see it too, but did not altogether approve of the intrusion of airplanes to
ell. Uncle David was wearing the flying gear in which one often saw him in those days.
David was an immensely attractive and charismatic character who was always the most
aining company. He was outrageously irreverent. One of his party tricks was being able to recite
hole of the Lords' Prayer in belches. He used to tease the Rector of Stoke Albany Church by
ying phrases in the prayer book, instead of "sundry places", he would insert, "donkey races".
ugh he was alleged to be almost prudish about sexual matters, he had an inexhaustible interest in
rial jokes. Sampson unearthed a copy of his two-page instructions to his fellow officers in his RAF
rs' Mess, during the war, on avoiding farting! (Page 191)
he came to stay with my parents at their flat at Fullarton House, outside Troon, he took great
t in switching around the twenty-odd nobs in the old Victorian bathroom, so that when Nanny
y turned on the hot tap to run a bath for us children, she was drenched by the cold plunge from
descending on her. He also enjoyed teasing my Collins grandmother, calling her, "Mopsie",
as most of the family were terrified of her!
45 he married the beautiful Evadne Flower from Stratford upon Avon, after her divorce from Cyril
don, with whom she had two children, Philippa and Shaun. They moved into Pipewell just after
ar. This brought together an intriguing mix of steel, brewing, theatre and flying. Evadne known to
Bobby, was the daughter of Sir Archibald Flower, chairman of both Flowers Breweries and the
speare Memorial Theatre. She was a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company for 74 years and
d flyer as a very young woman in the 1920s. I vividly remember, Deborah and I as teenagers being
over to Stratford by Aunt Bobby to see several Shakespeare plays which we enjoyed immensely.
had a wonderful fortnight's summer holiday at Glencassley, the Flower family highland estate near
n Sutherland, which David and Bobby later inherited. Philippa and Shaun were there too, and it
n enchanted holiday for me in my late teens (pages 192-197). David and Bobby were passionate
stalking, and used to stalk by themselves without a ghillie. One day Bobby took us to climb Ben
Assynt at the head of the glen, where we had to negotiate the "baad step" across a narrow ridge at
mmit. Beyond the summit and down below was Ben More Loch in a crater, with icy cold water in
ummer and golden coloured brown trout.
