Selwyn Lloyd

John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd CH CBE TD PC (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978), known for most of his career as Selwyn Lloyd, was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Foreign Secretary from 1955 to 1960, then as Chancellor of the Exchequer until 1962. He was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1971, serving until his retirement in 1976.

Background
Lloyd was born in West Kirby, now in Merseyside, but then in the country of Cheshire, the son of John Wesley Lloyd, a dental surgeon, and his wife, Mary Rachel Warhurst. He was educated at Fettes College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union and the Cambridge University Liberal Club.

Early career
He was a Liberal Parliamentary candidate at Macclesfield in the 1929 general election, coming third. After this he concentrated on a legal career having been admitted to Gray's Inn in 1926. He was called to the bar in 1930.

He served as a councillor on Hoylake Urban District Council 1932–40.

World War II service
During the Second World War he reached the rank of brigadier and was Deputy Chief of Staff of the British Second Army.

Election to Parliament
He was elected to the House of Commons to represent Wirral in the 1945 general election. Originally a Liberal, he became a member of the "Young Turks" faction of the Conservative Party.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
When the Conservatives returned to power under Churchill in 1951, Lloyd served under Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1951 to 1954.

Minister of Supply and Minister of Defence
He then served as Minister of Supply (1954–1955). He was subsequently Minister of Defence (1955).

Foreign Secretary
He became Foreign Secretary in 1955. His tenure saw the Suez Crisis, which led to the fall of the Eden government. While Foreign Secretary he was noted for not being on particularly good terms with his American counterpart, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. He continued to serve as Foreign Secretary under Harold Macmillan until 1960.

Chancellor of the Exchequer
In 1960 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer (1960–1962).

Unable to cope with Britain's economic problems in the early 1960s, and a focus of public unpopularity for the "Pay Pause" of the early 1960s, he was sacked from the government during the "Night of the Long Knives" reshuffle, and returned to the backbenches. He was replaced by Reginald Maudling, then seen as a potential future leader of the Conservative Party, and whose remit was to reflate the economy going into the next General Election due by the end of 1964.

Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons
He was called back to the government in 1963 by Alec Douglas-Home, who made him Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons until the Conservative defeat in the general election of 1964.

Speaker of the House of Commons
In 1971, after the Conservatives had returned to power, Lloyd became Speaker. In a break with convention, both the Labour and Liberal Parties contested his seat in both the February 1974 and October 1974 general elections, but he retained it and continued to hold the position of speaker until 1976.

Peerage
In 1976 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, of Wirral in the County of Merseyside.

Personal life
He was married in the Wirral in March 1951 to Elizabeth Marshall, known as Bae, his secretary and the daughter of Roland Marshall of West Kirby. A solicitor by profession, she was born in 1928, making her 23 years his junior. They had a daughter, Joanna, and divorced in 1957.