Tom Ilvester Lloyd

1873 – 1942

Primarily self-taught, Tom was born in Liverpool in 1873. He lived with his widowed mother and four younger children. His schooling lasted until the age of 13, shortly after this he worked as a poster designer having lied about his age.

Tom met his wife Florence in 1900, a shared love of animals bringing them together. He struggled to become an artist specialising in horses and hounds and despite very limited means he and Florence had several, beagles, spaniels and a horse called Two Pounds Ten, because that is what they paid for him.

Soon after their son Jack was born the family moved to Sherington, taking the beagles with them. Life was interrupted by World War 1 and Thomas enlisted in the army and was soon in France with the Remount Service, and was later commissioned into the British Artillery.

On his return to Sherington he set about building up his beagle pack which became known as the Sherington Foot Beagles as well as being a pillar in the community. He lived in Roadside Cottage in Park Road.

His career as an artist progressed and he found his work much in demand for both painting and modelling. He designed all thirty battle dioramas at the The War Office British Empire Exhibition in Wembley in 1924 and his work was displayed in the Science Museum and the World fair in Chicago.

The majority of his work was sporting and many people thought his horse portraiture some of the best of his time. He painted a series of beagling pictures and a variety of hunting scenes, working both in oil and watercolour. He illustrated a number of books, and became very famous for his hound sketches – illustrating the British section of Sir John Buchanan Jardine’s Hounds of the World.

He often worked with his Jack son who was a writer. The artist died in 1942.

C.L. 23.8.2006