A Family History of the Illustrious, Notorious and Eccentric Lloyds of Birmingham, Brigstock and Pipewell Hall - Flipbook - Page 176
an
armywho
rifles,
he bought
for their Mauser
actions.
Lloyd
haswhich
died aged
86, established
an unrivalled
tion as a designer and maker of sporting rifles.
yard range in the park enabled him to put theory into
e, but
had a far largerand
proving-ground
the form
Glen
ong
non-conformist
mild eccentric,inLloyd
neverofhad
a
deerbut
forest
in countless
Sutherland,
which
hadworkshop
belonged labouring
to his
ny job
spent
hours
in his
family
generations.
ect hisfor
elegant
designs.There he would take to the hills on
n, often shooting three or four stags in a day, and in the
he
inspected
every
carcase
closely
how
bullet had
Llewellyn
Lloyd
was
born on
Feb to
27 see
1910,
thehisseventh
med.
ut
of ten boys and three girls) in a family of steel-makers.
s educated at Oundle, but lasted only a few weeks at
uitsUniversity.
of his labours in the workshop was the David Lloyd
ow
which he produced in various calibres. Weapon and sight
onstructed
a single
unit,academic
and the telescope
than wasteastime
studying
subjects, was
or goencased
into
otective
sleeve, itself
fitted
solidly
to the
action.
mily
firm,steel
he decided
to learn
to fly.
To do
so he
joinedThe
nation
so strong
thatNo
the602,
riflethe
could
down
xiliary was
squadrons
3 first
Citybeofthrown
Glasgow,
and
ground
without
the sight losing it9s zero.
05,
the City
of Birmingham.
etime
weapon
was alsoWorld
elegantly
finely
the Second
War proportioned,
broke out, Lloyd
wasfinished,
an
oy to fire.
walnut
verytostraight,
andand
thehe
high
enced
pilot,Itswith
overstock
2,500was
hours
his credit;
had
brough
the eye
easily into
line with
the scope.
many types
of aircraft,
including
Spitfires
and Hurricanes.
29, to his disappointment, he was too old for front-line
e.ther Lloyd sold 150 of these beautiful rifles: in recent years
tched £5000 apiece, and at his death more than 30
finished
hisController
workshop.at(His
family plan
dedhenearly
became
SeniorinAir
Tangmere,
the to
ue
production).
station
in Sussex, and from there he made a vital
bution to the Battle of Britain. Having flown so much
er
invention
wasmany
.244 of
cartridge,
which
he necked-down
f, and
knowing
the pilots,
he could
communicate
.375exceptionally
magnum, to well,
produce
a relatively
small
round with
hem
appreciating
their
problems
in a
ionally high velocity. He offered the design to the London
akers Holland & Holland, who took it over and began to
244 rifles.
(After was
a break,
theywillowy,
are nowand
back
in production).
oung
man Lloyd
tall and
kept
much the
igure all his life. During his service career he maintained
rength
of Lloyd9s
rifles his
has uniform
become tunics
legendary.
.244
rmal
sartorial
elegance;
wereThe
lined
with
yd his
hascap
notatbeen
zeroed
since
1952,
he family
wore his
a rakish
angle,
over
hair yet
far has
too killed
long.
ous stags perfectly. Another rifle survived unscathed when
nd
which Longsdon
it had been(formerly
left rolledFlower).
over theThey
lip of of a
0 herover
met in
Evadne
was written
off among
the rocks
below.Hall,
The aowner,
dand
in 1945,
and made
their home
at Pipewell
fine
Allerton,
wenthouse
on to near
shootKettering,
19 stags with
it that season. Like
entury stone
in Northamptonshire.
stalkers,
hadtwo
lostchildren
his confidence
fromand
firing
e alreadyhehad
of her own,
theweapons
Lloyds had
rformed
erratically,
but recovered
it with
David
Lloyd.
ore.
The house
and park
3 once part
of a his
much
larger
3 were owned by a family trust, and it was income from
o the
of hisDavid
life Lloyd
continued
to experiment
in his
ust
thatend
enabled
to follow
his natural
bent.
hop. At home he generally wore knickerbockers, which were
mes
tied infrom
at the
with the
string,
pale green
he retired
thebottom
RAF, with
rankwith
of Squadron
ngs
below.
, Lloyd
continued to fly in his own scarlet Tiger Moth.
nchant for making low passes at unsuspecting targets
mained
had
alwaysonce,
been:after
a fastidious
mes gotwhat
himhe
into
trouble:
he had craftsman
beaten up and
try gentleman,
perfectly
courteous
to people of every rank,
boats
on a reservoir,
he was
fined £150.
rtunately endowed with the means to pursue excellence all
s.
aircraft
were his great hobby, rifles were his passion. Being
deer stalker, he wanted a weapon which would hold it9s
Hart-Davies
definitely, and therefore be humane. From the 1930s he
Telegraph
August
1996 hours to the development of a
d most of
his waking
pic sight-mount which would stand up to rigorous use.
ewell he converted some loose-boxes into a workshop,
he generally employed one assistant. Inside the house, the
