John Hardress-Lloyd
John Hardress-Lloyd was the son of an Anglo-Irish lawyer. He was commissioned in the 4th Dragoon Guards on 10 October 1894. He served with the Tirah Expedition on the North West Frontier in 1897-8 and in the South African War. Between March 1901 and September 1902 he was ADC to Lieutenant-General Sir E L Elliot. He was also an exceptionally good polo player - one of the elite group of 10-goal players. He was a member of the Ireland team that won a medal at the 1908 Olympics and in 1911 he captained the England team that crossed the Atlantic to play the United States.
On the outbreak of war he went to France with 4th Dragoon Guards before joining Major-General Beauvoir De Lisle’s 1st Cavalry Division staff. He followed De Lisle to Gallipoli when the latter took command of 29th Division. Hardress-Lloyd was appointed 2 i/c 1st Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in May 1916, becoming its commanding officer a month later. Whilst commanding this battalion he was awarded the DSO in January 1917.
In February 1917 he was appointed to the command of ‘D’ Battalion, one of the founding units of the Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps. The battalion’s first actions were at Arras and included the disastrous Bullecourt operation in April 1917. 3rd Tank Brigade was formed under his command on 27 April 1917 and Hardress-Lloyd commanded the Brigade until the war’s end, receiving promotion to Brigadier-General on 16 April 1918 and a Bar to his DSO in July. He was also mentioned in despatches six times and appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur.
Three of the staff of the Tank Corps provide interesting insights on Hardress-Lloyd’s character. J F C Fuller characterised him as a ‘beau sabreur’ who kept a good table and a fine stable, but also credits him with at least partial responsibility for the idea from which grew the plans for the Cambrai attack. For Evan Charteris, Hardress-Lloyd was, fundamentally, a competent, rather than an outstanding Tank Brigade commander. A great favourite of Hugh Elles, he was said to possess ‘more character than brains’ and to be aware that ‘his cards were not all trumps but that much could be done by bluff, in legitimate tactical ways’. He was ‘a man of much practical common sense, not easily perturbed’.
Giffard Martel felt Hardress-Lloyd was very good in the field, ‘but inclined to be lazy so far as training and organization were concerned behind the front. He was apt to come to conferences without having studied the papers that were to be discussed there’.
By one of those curious quirks of fate, Hardress-Lloyd is the great uncle of the radio and television producer, John Lloyd, whose credits include Not the Nine O'clock News, Spitting Image, QI and ...Blackadder!'.