James Lloyd

Who was James Lloyd?

Frederick James Lloyd, more commonly known as James Lloyd, was an artist. He became famous for his paintings, mostly of animals and country landscapes.

He was the first living self-taught artist to have a painting hung at the Tate in London, titled Cat and Mouse.

He was the son of a policeman who had taken up farming. He had worked on his father's farm until the age of 19, when he too joined the police force. He had a variety of jobs before the war: gas-works stoker; bus conductor; builder's labourer; lamp-lighter; until he was accepted for the famous and exclusive British Army regiment of the Coldstream Guards. He served with distinction in his regiment overseas during the war. On demobilisation he married Nancy, she was a teenager and he in his forties, he returned to the land and took a job as - a wagonner- in Shropshire. He,his wife and four children bought a small holdings at Triangle, near Halifax, in the Pennines. Although he had done some paintings as a young man, it was not until he was forty, that he began to paint in earnest.

He and his family moved to Skirpenbeck, East Riding of Yorkshire in 1950. He took on the job as a cowman.