TONY LLOYD - PERSONAL WEBSITE
I was born in Lytham, Lancashire in 1947. My parents named me Anthony and deliberately refrained from adding a middle name in an attempt to ensure that I would always be called Anthony. At some stage, probably around the age of eight, I changed it to Tony and that name has endured thereafter apart from my deceased parents and my brother.
At around the age of 15, I started to get rather competitive academically and managed to scrape together a few A-levels which then propelled me unexpectedly to Oxford University. At that stage I was the only individual in my wider family that had got any A-levels let alone a university place.
After graduating, I noticed that many of my contemporaries at college had decided to train as accountants or solicitors. Being at that stage, totally ignorant of what anything other than engineering involved, I made a few enquiries and eventually ended up at Price Waterhouse in Old Jewry in the city of London where I qualified as a chartered accountant.
Thereafter I spent a short period working on computer system design in the construction industry before engaging recruitment companies to find more worthwhile opportunities. In the exceptionally hot summer of 1976 I had to choose between joining the Qatar Petroleum Company and Rank Hovis McDougall. For reasons largely based on access to a decent pint and the company of young ladies, I opted for the latter. RHM looked after me quite well but I stayed with them for far too long. In retrospect, I should probably have taken more risks but there is no point in reliving the past.
I married Jill in 1979 and our two children Angharad and Merrick were born in 1984 and 1992 respectively. My grandson, Bertie, was born in 2015.
The last 10 years, I have devoted increasing amounts of time to voluntary activities in or peripheral to the National Health Service. Currently, I am the lead governor at the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading.
