Born in the spring of 1895 Francis was the son of The Rev. David and Margaret A. Lloyd who, at the time of his birth, lived on Anglesey. The 1901 census shows the family living in New Street, Shipston-on-Stour.  David is noted as a Church of England clergyman and the family have two servants, a cook and a housemaid. Francis was educated at Bromsgrove School where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps.  On completing his education Francis went to work as a clerk at the London, County and Westminster Bank in Lombard Street in London and it was from here that he enlisted in August 1914 with several other colleagues. Francis was immediately posted to the 28th (County of London) Battalion TF (Artists Rifles), London Regiment, that had been formed at St Pancras, roughly at the same time he enlisted.  At this time he had a service number of 108489.

Unusually the Battalion war diary starts before they went to France and so a rare insight is gained into the preparations they made prior to leaving for the Front.  The Battalion was based at the Tower of London, and undertook a series of rounds of physical drill, route marches, shooting practice, church parades and being inoculated.  The route marches took them to Clapham Common, Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath.  On the 18th October they marched up what is now the A5 to Abbots Langley, just north of Watford.

On the 24th October the orders came through that they were to move to France. The following day was spent receiving new rifles, ammunition, clothes and the medical stores were completed.  Their transport wagons left for Deptford. On the 26th October they entrained for Southampton from Watford and boarded S.S. Australind. The 27th was spent on board their ship in Southampton Water and they sailed over night arriving in Boulogne Harbour at 8:30am on the 28th October. They disembarked immediately and entrained to St Omer, where Sir John French the British Commander in Chief had set up his headquarters.  The arrived at 4:30am on the 29th October 1914.

The first few days of November were spent rebuilding trenches, which were suffering badly in the wet weather.  On the 5th November, after a parade at 7am they were bussed to Bailleul, where they took up a support position and undertook a series of route marches, until on the 26th November they were attached to 5th Brigade and converted into an Officer Training Unit.  Whilst not a front line service they suffered their first casualties the following day, when a Serjeant and Private were killed by a shell.

For the first two weeks of December various companies within the Battalion were put into the trenches as relief, but after that the serious job of Officer Training started.  The following months saw a constant round of new drafts arriving and men being sent for special training, whether it was Machine Guns or Artillery.  These were the men who would lead the new army of recruits that had volunteered in the autumn of 1914.  On the 2nd April the Battalion moved by bus to St. Omer and the training continued in much the same manner.  The result of all this training was that on the 29th August 1915 Francis received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and was posted to the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment.

On the 25th September 1915 the 2nd Devons were in the reserve for the 8th Division in a subsidiary action to the Battle of Loos called Bois Grenier.  Here they had a fairly light time, only being called on to dig a new trench at night, a task they did in very short time and with few casualties. There followed a quiet winter in the Laventie area near the French Belgian border.  In late March 1916 the Battalion were ordered to the Somme and took the line on the 5th April at Ovillers. This was the infamous Mash valley and in June they spent time making preparations for the big offensive.

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme a heavy barrage started at 6:35am and lasted an hour. The Devons crept up to within 100 yards of the German trenches and when the barrage lifted they ran forwards. The Regimental History records that they were immediately met by a tornado of fire from the front and flanks. The casualties were terrible. So shattered was the Battalion that it was sent to Longeau for three months of rest and rebuilding. However just 10 days later it was back in the front line and was moved around over the next three months. At the start of October it was at Philosophe between Lens and the Belgian border. The Battalion War diary for the 3rd October 1916 reports:

The Battalion relieved the 2/SCOTTISH RIFLES in the trenches in the afternoon. Our Artillery, Trench Mortars, Lewis and machine guns fired according to the programme doing considerable damage to hostile wire and trenches.

The enemy were very quiet and replied very feebly to our bombardments and wire cutting. One chance 77mm shell killed 2/Lieut F.B. Lloyd and wounded 2/Lieut R.A. Wykes and A.J. Snowden.

On the 14th October 1916 the Evesham Journal reported:

News was received in Shipston on Saturday that 2nd Lieut F. B. Lloyd, of the Devon regiment, and youngest son of the Rector, Rev. D. Lloyd, has been killed on action on October 3. He was 21 years of age and joined the Army shortly after the outbreak of war. His commanding officer writes in a letter to his parents:- “We shall miss your boy very much. He was always so calm and unconcerned. His platoon will feel his loss. He hated to be taken away from them for some other job. He was popular alike with officers and men.” Much sympathy is felt for Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd in their sad bereavement.

Francis is buried in the Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, Pas de Calais, France, and is remembered on both the Town Memorial and the Royal Bank of Scotland Roll of Honour.

Mike Wells