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| 18 May 2020 | |
| Announcements |
| LLOYD, David John The following obituary was written by Deanna Lloyd, David’s wife of 56 years: David, my beloved husband of 56 years, was born in Thorpe Bay, Essex, and went to Alleyn Court Preparatory School, which imbued in him a great love of cricket, his headmaster D. R. Wilcox having played for England. He went to Tonbridge in 1947, to Hillside, where his housemaster was the school chaplain, who ran a friendly house, and of whom David always spoke fondly, with many happy memories. He enjoyed his years at Tonbridge, playing almost every sport he could, and sharing a study throughout with his lifelong friend Julian Lessey (HS 47-52), who sadly he pre-deceased by just six months. David's national service was spent on the lower decks of The Belfast, mainly in dry dock! His greatest achievement there was being picked to box fly-weight for the British Navy in Gibraltar, he reckons only because no one else was light enough! The thought of following his father into the city was anathema to him. He wanted an outdoor life, abroad, and was offered a job planting rubber in Malaya, after being interviewed in a dark and dusty city office by a very ancient gentleman sitting at the other end of a long table, holding a huge horn to his ear, who asked him where he went to school, and did he play cricket! David spent 15 years in Malaya planting rubber, arriving at the height of the Emergency, starting out as an Assistant Manager, riding shotgun on a battered up old motor bike, once riding over a snake, and turning round to find it was a deadly hamadryad. When he rose to the dizzy heights of Manager, it was in an equally battered up old Land Rover. I was always glad he chose Malaya, my home, and where we met. We married in 1963, and had two beautiful daughters, both inheriting his devastatingly good looks! He always had a twinkle in his eye, and a roguish sense of humour. When I was first asked to 'come up and look at his etchings', I was truly surprised to find many lovely paintings! Drawing and painting were a huge part of David's life, he eventually painted professionally, and was commissioned to do at least two paintings of the Chapel of St Augustine at Tonbridge. He had always loved travelling, and when the rubber estate was sold in 1968 with the onset of Malayanisation, the blow was slightly softened by David planning a three month trip halfway round the world, with our two small girls, travelling back to live in our lovely house in Purleigh in Essex, where we then lived for nearly forty years. Once back, we travelled most of Europe in our old BMW convertible, our two little girls in the back seat, heads in their books! Latterly it was long hauls to our younger daughter in Australia, always via Malaysia. In 1970 David started up a village cricket team with two friends, playing on a very rough football field, very family-orientated cricket on Saturday afternoons, huge teas to include wives and children. Later, when the cricket became too serious and competitive, he started up a more gentle midweek evening team, calling themselves 'The Old Devils', a nod to Martin Aimes, and he organised cricket trips abroad, playing at Les Ormes in France, and many times to Portugal to play the British Club in Porto, where our older daughter lives. Lunches were very long and very liquid, with a fine bottle of Port always firmly on the score table! In the team were two other OTs, the late Richard Gracey (WH/PS 50-55) and Keith Payne, now Fiddes-Payne (FH 46-51). David also played every other sport he could. It was hockey in the early days in Kuala Lumpur (turning out for the husbands of my team the Selangor Club Ladies!), then tennis, golf, badminton table tennis, real tennis, skiing, and swimming daily for all his life. He played for the Cricketers Club of London for many years, latterly being adopted by them as a 'mascot'. In one of his last games for them, he found himself playing with the youngest Cowdrey grandson, Fabian Cowdrey (WH 06-11), having been coached by Colin in the nets many decades earlier! Sadly, in 2016 David was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but he was determined it was not going to slow him down. Recovering from a nine-hour pancreatomy, he chose to do another five trips abroad, always with the doctor's blessing! Only two months before he died in June, at the age of 85 he had a last tennis lesson because he felt he had 'lost his serve'! I cannot think that there can be many who have led a life as full and as varied as David. He was always fun to be with, adored by me and by his two daughters, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild, and will be very much missed. David was very special. (HS 47-52) |
