William Lloyd (mountaineer)

Sir William Lloyd (29 December 1782 – 16 May 1857) was a Welsh military commander, and was one of the first Europeans to ascend a Himalayan peak.

He was born in Wrexham, the son of Richard Myddleton Massie Lloyd, a Mercer (linen and cloth dealer) and banker, and attended school in Ruthin. In 1798, he obtained a commission, at the rank of Lieutenant, in the army of the East India Company, and later became a Major in the Bengal Infantry, captaining the Residency Guard at Nagpur for 14 years. In 1822 he began a journey through the Himalayas that took him as far as Buan Ghati on the Tibetan border, where he produced maps for the EIC, which were of such high quality, they are still used by the Indian military. On 13 June he climbed the peak of Boorendo alone. In 1840, he published his journal as The Narrative of a Journey from Cawnpoor to the Boorendo Pass, which was edited by his only son, George Lloyd. He was knighted in 1838, and retired to his estate of Bryn Estyn at Wrexham, where he became captain of the Denbighshire Hussars Yeomanry. Following the suicide of his son George, while visiting Alexandria, Egypt, and the collapse of the family's bank in Wrexham, William Lloyd retired from public life for a few years, spending time at his villa at Llandudno, 'Plas Trevor'. He passed away at Plas Trevor on 16 May 1857, his body being brought back to Bryn Estyn, before his burial at St Tundo's Churchyard, on the Great Orme, llandudno.

Sources

• Welsh Biography On-line