Editing Selwyn Lloyd (section)

===Army service===

====Early Second World War service====
Lloyd became a reserve officer in 1937.<ref name="Thorpe 1989, p76">Thorpe 1989, p. 76.</ref> In January 1939 he helped to raise a second line unit of the [[Royal Horse Artillery]] in the North-West.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/> He was commissioned as a regular [[Second lieutenant#United Kingdom and Commonwealth|second lieutenant]] on 27 June 1939,<ref name="Quarterly_Army_List_45">{{cite book|pages=497e|title=The Quarterly Army List: April–June 1945|publisher=HM Stationery Office|year=1945}}</ref> and by August, with war seeming ever more likely, he was an acting [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]] and acting [[brigade major]] to Brigadier Cherry, CRA ([[Commander, Royal Artillery]]) of the [[55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division]], a first-line [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] formation.<ref>Thorpe 1989, p. 67.</ref> His obituary in ''The Times'' later stated wrongly that he had begun the war as a private.<ref name="Thorpe 1989, p76"/>

On the outbreak of war Lloyd's patron Brigadier Cherry sponsored him for the [[Staff College, Camberley]].<ref name="Thorpe 1989, p71">Thorpe 1989, p. 71.</ref> Many of those sent to the Staff College in 1939 were barristers, businessmen, school and university teachers thought likely to have an aptitude for staff work;<ref>Thorpe 1989, p. 69.</ref> [[Brian Horrocks]] was one of his instructors.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/> Out of 110 officers in his intake, he was one of 22 passed as fit for immediate staff duty. He was appointed BMRA (Brigade major, Royal Artillery) to Brigadier Cherry, despite "not knowing anything about guns etc".<ref name="Thorpe 1989, p71"/> By the spring of 1940 the 55th Division was on duty defending the Suffolk Coast against possible invasion.<ref>Thorpe 1989, p. 72.</ref>

In February 1941, by now an acting [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]], he was a [[Staff (military)|General Staff Officer Grade 2]] (GSO2) at the headquarters of [[Major-general (United Kingdom)|Major General]] [[Charles Allfrey]]'s [[43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division]], another first-line TA formation. The division was part of [[XII Corps (United Kingdom)|XII Corps]], commanded by [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant General]] [[Andrew Thorne]], but he was replaced in April 1941 by Lieutenant General [[Bernard Montgomery]], who soon noted Lloyd as a promising officer. Montgomery was promoted to command [[Aldershot Command|South-Eastern Command]] at Reigate (he soon renamed it "South Eastern Army") and on 18 December 1941 Lloyd was posted to join him.<ref name="Thorpe 1989, p73-5">Thorpe 1989, pp. 73–5.</ref> By 1942, Lloyd was a [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant colonel]] (GSO1) on the staff.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/> He wanted to see fighting, and was disappointed not to be posted to Egypt with Montgomery when the latter took command of the [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|Eighth Army]] in August 1942. Montgomery told him that temporary officers lacked the aptitude of regulars for fighting, but were often better at staff work.<ref name="Thorpe 1989, p73-5"/> On 6 November, Lloyd was promoted to temporary lieutenant-colonel (war-substantive major).<ref name="Quarterly_Army_List_45"/>

====Second Army====
In the spring of 1943 Lloyd was posted to the staff of the [[Second Army (United Kingdom)|Second Army]], whose [[General Officer Commanding]] (GOC) was Lieutenant General [[Kenneth Anderson (British Army officer)|Sir Kenneth Anderson]], which was then being formed for participation in [[Operation Overlord]].<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/> He was appointed an [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] (OBE) in June 1943.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=36033 |date=2 June 1943 |page=2426 |supp=y}}</ref> Between June and August 1943 Lloyd was sent on a fact-finding trip to Algiers, Malta and Sicily, to examine German beach defences and to learn lessons from the recent [[Operation Torch]] and [[Operation Husky]] landings, and on his return had to make presentations to senior officers.<ref>Thorpe 1989, p. 79.</ref> On 14 December 1943, he was promoted to acting colonel,<ref name="Quarterly_Army_List_45"/> and by February 1944 was Deputy Chief of Staff of the Second Army, now commanded by Lieutenant General [[Sir Miles Dempsey]]. He later recalled that the work preparing for the [[Normandy landings]] was more intense than at any other time in his life.<ref>Thorpe 1989, p. 81.</ref> By March 1944 Montgomery, who, after commanding the Eighth Army in [[North African campaign|North Africa]], Sicily and [[Italian campaign (World War II)|Italy]], had returned to England in late December 1943 to take command of the [[21st Army Group]], knew him well enough to call him "Selwyn". Lloyd grew particularly close to Dempsey, with whom he crossed over to Normandy on D-Day and who remained a personal friend for the rest for their lives.<ref>Thorpe 1989, p. 94.</ref>

Lloyd's particular responsibility was preparation of the "loading tables", allocating priceless shipping space to men, weapons, equipment and other supplies.<ref name="Thorpe 1989, p78">Thorpe 1989, p. 78.</ref> As a result of Lloyd's work, the deployment to the bridgehead went almost entirely according to plan. The only unforeseen problem was an outbreak of malaria caused by an infestation of mosquitoes around a flooded ditch in [[I Corps (United Kingdom)|I Corps]] sector, for which Lloyd had to arrange the transfer of malaria vaccines from Burma.<ref name="Thorpe 1989, p78"/>

In October 1944, although not yet a member of the Conservative Party, he accepted an invitation to apply for the Conservative candidacy for the Wirral, where the sitting MP was retiring.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/> He was selected in preference to a [[Victoria Cross|VC]] bearing rival, who refused to pledge to live in the constituency; when asked Lloyd replied that he had "never lived anywhere else".<ref>Clarke 1992, p. 220.</ref> In January 1945, he was unanimously adopted as the Conservative candidate whilst home on leave.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/>

Lloyd was promoted to [[Order of the British Empire|Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in February 1945<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=36917 |date=1 February 1945 |page=670 |supp=y}}</ref> and was promoted to acting [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|brigadier]] on 8 March 1945.<ref name="Quarterly_Army_List_45"/> He was twice mentioned in despatches, the second of these being amongst a list of soldiers honoured for the 1944-5 campaign.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=37521|page=1675|supp=y|date=4 April 1946}}</ref>

Lloyd was with the Allied forces which liberated [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]].<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/> He seldom spoke about Belsen, but later recalled seeing inmates living like animals, defecating in public view, and that there was no smell from the 10,000 corpses lying unburied (another 17,000 died after liberation) as they were emaciated, with no flesh to putrefy.<ref>Thorpe 1989, p. 91.</ref> Lloyd was also sent by Dempsey to identify [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s body following his suicide.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p158"/> Lloyd ended his active army service with the honorary rank of colonel.<ref>{{cite book|pages=526g|title=The Quarterly Army List: October–December 1945|publisher=HM Stationery Office|year=1945}}</ref> Apart from his CBE, he was also decorated with the U.S. [[Legion of Merit]] in the degree of Commander.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=37909 |date=18 March 1947 |page=1311 |supp=y}}</ref>

====Post-war====
On 18 July 1947, Lloyd was appointed the honorary Colonel of 349 [[37th (Tyne Electrical Engineers) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=38094 |date=10 October 1947 |page=4790 |supp=y}}</ref> He was awarded the [[Territorial Decoration]] (TD) in August 1951.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=39308 |date=10 August 1951 |page=4317 |supp=y}}</ref> He retired from the Territorial Army Reserve on 2 March 1955 with the honorary rank of colonel.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=40419 |date=25 February 1955 |page=1253 |supp=y}}</ref>