John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd was born at West Kirby on 28 July 1904, the son of John Wesley (Jack) Lloyd and Mary Rachel Warhurst. He was educated at the Leas School, Hoylake; Fettes College, Edinburgh; and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He married Elizabeth Marshall in 1951 (divorced in 1957), with whom he had one daughter. He was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn, 1930, and established a legal practice in Liverpool. He stood unsuccessfully as Liberal parliamentary candidate in Macclesfield, 1929. He concentrated on his legal career instead and served on Hoylake Urban District Council. He broke with the Liberal Party in 1931 and switched his allegiance to the Conservatives. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he was commissioned in the Royal Horse Artillery. He served on the General Staff, 1942, and was posted to the Second Army, 1943, where he was closely involved in the planning for D-Day. He sailed with his commander, Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey, for France on D-Day. He was promoted Brigadier in March 1945 and was with the first allied forces to enter Belsen. He was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the Wirral in 1945 and represented that constituency until 1976. He was appointed Queen's Council, 1947, and Recorder of Wigan, 1948-51. He was Minister of State in the Foreign Office, 1951-4; Minister of Supply, 1954-5; Minister of Defence, April-December 1955; Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1955-60; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1960-2; and Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons, 1963-4. In Opposition, he was spokesman on Commonwealth affairs, 1964-6, and in the course of his duties visited New Zealand, 1965, and Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), 1966. He was Speaker of the House of Commons, 1971-6. Having accepted a life peerage, he sat on the cross benches of the House of Lords, 1976-8. He died at his home in Oxfordshire on 17 May 1978. His publications include: "Mr Speaker, Sir" (1976) and "Suez 1956: a Personal View" (1978).