Lieutenant Geoffrey Archibald Loyd

Poperinge Communal Cemetery Grave I.B.6

Cyclist Company, 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, 4th Guards Brigade, attached 2nd Division

Age 24

KIA 13.11.14

Third son of Archie Kirkman Loyd KC, MP, and Henrietta Louisa Loyd (nee Clutterbuck), 21 Cardogan Square, London. The married in 1885 and had four sons. Archie was Conservative MP for Abingdon, Berkshire. He stood down and retired in 1906 however, he was re-elected in a by-election for his old seat in August 1916 and held the seat until the General election in December 1918. He was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire in 1900. He worked with Lord Wantage who formed the National Aid Society, established to assist the sick and wounded in war, to be renamed the British Red Cross Society in 1905. Loyd was one of two original members of the society and he became Vice Chairman of the society’s council. During the First World War he was Chairman of North Berkshire Recruiting Officers’ Advisory Committee.

Early Life

Geoffrey was born in London in 1890 and was educated at Eton College from 1903 to 1908. He then went to Magdalen College, Oxford until 1910 when he left without taking a degree due to illness. He was a member of the Guards’ Club, the Junior Army and Navy, and Pratt’s. He joined the Scots Guards in February 1911 and given the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on probation and this rank was confirmed on 1 February 1913. In July 1914, he was appointed to command the Cyclist Platoon, 4th Guards Brigade, this was part of the Mounted Troops of the 2nd Division. They landed in France on 13 August 1914. On the 6 September he was awarded the Croix de Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for his accurate reconnaissance and liaison work during the retreat from Mons. He also saw action at the Battle of the Marne and Aisne. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 24 September.

His Death

On the 13 November his Company was escorting four siege howitzers of the 35th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery that were withdrawing from positions near Zonnebeke and were in entrenched positions under heavy shell fire.

Linesman

Geoffrey received wounds from shrapnel and was taken to No.4 Casualty Clearing Station at Poperinge, this was located at Chateau d’Hondt, Gemeenteschool and the Hospice, were he subsequently died of his wounds.  

War Diary entry

The War Diary records that: ‘.. heard that poor Loyd had been wounded… A good and capable officer – liked & regretted by all.’

Headstone

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