14th May 1915

John Augustus Lloyd was born at Hockley Heath on 1st June 1887 and is buried at Umberslade Baptist Church, having died of sickness on 14th May 1915 whilst serving as a Private with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website records his parents as Frank and Zoe Lloyd, of Hockley Heath, although the 1901 census records John as the “adopted son” of John and Susan Powell, of Hockley Heath. 13-year-old John was listed as a domestic gardener at the time.

It looks as if Frank and Zoe moved to Birmingham after John’s birth, leaving him in Hockley Heath with the Powells who had no children of their own. In 1891, aged three, he is listed as a boarder with the Powells. Frank and Zoe continued living with their younger children in Birmingham – Joseph Theodore, Emma Eliza, Marie Margurette, Lucie Emma and Lillian Christine. Zoe died in Birmingham in 1938.

Francis Lloyd and Zoe Juliette Jansis married in Kidderminster in 1883. Zoe, who seems to have been known by her middle name of Juliette, was recorded on the 1891 census as a British Subject born in Belgium, and on the 1901 census as a Foreign Subject born in Germany! In 1911, her birthplace was again listed as Belgium and she was recorded as Belgian rather than British. The census records Frank and Zoe as having been married for 27 years, and had eight children, of whom two had already died.

By 1911, John Augustus Lloyd was married to Annie Bertha and they were both staying with John and Susan Powell in Hockley Heath. 23-year-0ld John Lloyd was working as a postman. We haven’t been able to identify his medal card on the Ancestry website so we don’t know when he enlisted or arrived at the Front.

If you have any more information on the Lloyd family and their connections with Hockley Heath, please let us know. His widow, Annie Bertha, remarried in 1917, marrying James Kenny in Birmingham and subsequently living in Northfield.

John Lloyd’s burial place, Umberslade Baptist Church, is now in the care of the Historic Chapels Trust and is regularly open for visitors. Further information is on the Friends of Umberslade Baptist Chapel Facebook page.

Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian

tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk