Born in Cheshire the son of John Wesley Lloyd (dental surgeon and Methodist lay preacher) and Mary Rachel Warhurst. He had three sisters.
School - Leas School and as a boy was particularly interested in military history to which he later attributed his successful military career.
In 1918 (age 13) he won a scholarship to Fettes College.
October 1923 - admitted as a scholar to Magdalene College. There he was a friend of the future Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey. He played rugby and was disappointed not to get a Blue.
He was an active Liberal and in March 1925 he entertained H.H. Asquith at Magdalene after a Liberal Party meeting at the Cambridge Guildhall. He became President of the Cambridge University Liberal Club and was an active debater in the Cambridge Union Society.
He lost his scholarship in June 1925, after obtaining a Second in Classics. He then switched to study History, in which he also obtained a Second. He finally graduated with a third-class in Part II of the Law Tripos in June 1928.
He practised as a barrister and served on Hoylake Urban District Council, by which time he had become a Conservative Party sympathiser. During the Second World War he rose to be Deputy Chief of Staff of Second Army, playing an important role in planning sea transport to the Normandy beachhead and reaching the acting rank of brigadier.
1945-1976 - he was the Member of Parliament for Wirral.
1954-64 - held various ministerial positions under Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home, including Foreign Secretary (1955-60) and Chancellor of the Exchequor (1960-62).
1971-76 - Speaker of the House of Commons
1976 - he retired
He was made an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College