Name: Henry Lloyd

Author: Samuel Henry Fergus Johnston

Born at Cwmbychan in the parish of Llanbedr, Meironnydd. The details of his life are somewhat obscure and are known mainly from the memoir of his friend John Drummond. Of Jacobite sympathies, he went to France hoping to obtain a commission in the French army, but, failing to achieve this aim he became a lay brother in a religious order and taught military subjects to officers of the Irish Brigade. He was present at Fontenoy and took part in the Jacobite rising of 1745, in which he was employed as a secret agent with instructions to maintain contact with Welsh sympathisers. He claimed to have been arrested in 1746. After his arrest he served in the French army and was sent to England to report on the possibility of an invasion of the south coast. He also saw service with the Prussian, Austrian, and Russian armies and rose to the rank of major-general. Towards the end of his life he seems to have come to terms with the British Government, which granted him a pension. He died in Belgium in 1783.

Lloyd’s principal literary work was The History of the late war in Germany between the King of Prussia and the Empress of Germany and her Allies (two vols., various editions and translations), which included his reflections on the art of war, a section of the work which had considerable influence on Napoleon and other commanders and won him a European reputation. He also published a Political and Military Rhapsody on the Defence of Great Britain (1st ed., 1779, very rare, but several reprints appeared later).