Bertram Lloyd

Ernest Bertram Lloyd (14 May 1881 – 9 June 1944) was an English naturalist, humanitarian, vegetarian and campaigner for animal rights. He was the founder of the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports.

Bertram Lloyd
Born	Ernest Bertram Lloyd 14 May 1881 London, England
Died	9 June 1944 (aged 63) Champneys, near Tring, England
Occupation	Naturalist, humanitarian
Spouse(s)	Sylvia Colenso ​ (m. 1938)​

Life and work

Lloyd was born in North London on 14 May 1881.[1] He was a member of the Lloyd's insurance family[2] and educated privately at Merchant Taylors' School. He then spent two years in Germany, where he attained fluency in German. On his return to London, Lloyd worked for his family's business for a number of years, but his passions ultimately lay elsewhere.[3][4]

Lloyd was a member of Henry S. Salt's original Humanitarian League[3] and a conscientious objector during the First World War.[2] In 1918, he published his first edited collection of anti-war poems Poems Written During the Great War, 1914–1918, the selected poems critiqued the idealization and glamour of war.[5] In 1919, he published a further anti-war poetry collection The Paths of Glory.[6]

From 1920, he contributed to the ornithology magazine, British Birds.[3] In 1921, Lloyd published The Great Kinship, an anthology of humanitarian poetry.[7] In 1932, he founded the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports, where he worked as Honorary Secretary for the remainder of his life.[3] From 1935, he was Editor of the journal Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society.[1] He was also a member of the British Ornithologists' Union and Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.[3]

In 1938, he married Sylvia Colenso in Cardigan, Wales.[8]

Death

Lloyd suffered from poor health near the end of his life; he became a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society two days before his death at Champneys, near Tring, on 9 June 1944, aged 63.[1] He composed his own epitaph, which ended "He cared not a farthing for Heaven or God, / But valued far more an inch of green sod."[1]

Selected publications

• (ed.) Poems Written During the Great War, 1914–1918. London: George Allen & Unwin. 1918.
• (ed.) The Paths of Glory: A Collection of Poems Written During the War, 1914-1919. London: George Allen & Unwin. 1919.
• (ed.) The Great Kinship: An Anthology of Humanitarian Poetry. London: George Allen & Unwin. 1921.
• (ed.) Foxhunters' Philosophy: A Garland from Five Centuries. National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports. 1938.

References

1. Benson, Robert B. (1945). "In memoriam Bertram Lloyd — 1881-1944". Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society and Field Club. 22: 57–59.
2. Preece, Rod (2011). Animal Sensibility and Inclusive Justice in the Age of Bernard Shaw. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press. p. 158. ISBN 9780774821124.
3. Kirkman, F. B. (1944). "Obituary". British Birds. 38. London: H. F. & G. Witherby Ltd. p. 73.
4. "Obituary". Ibis. 87 (1): 112–113. 1945. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1945.tb01364.x. ISSN 1474-919X.
5. Varty, Anne (2017-01-02). "Women's Poetry in First World War Anthologies and Two Collections of 1916". Women's Writing. 24 (1): 37–52. doi:10.1080/09699082.2016.1233772. ISSN 0969-9082. S2CID 163709694.
6. Kendall, Tim, ed. (2013). Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. xxiv. ISBN 9780199581443.
7. Li, Chien-hui (2017). Mobilizing Traditions in the First Wave of the British Animal Defense Movement. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 293. ISBN 9781137526519.
8. Gammage, Nick. "The Colenso family and Elangeni". Amersham Museum. Retrieved 2019-10-26.

Further reading

• Looker, Samuel L. (1960). Bertram Lloyd: Humanitarian and Pioneer (PDF). Leicester: G. C. M. Printing Service Ltd.