Lewis Vivian Loyd
(1853-1908)
6 June 1861

Volume 4, page 30, sitting number 4190.

Lewis Vivian Loyd appears on the 1881 census living at Wyke near Farnham, a Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 'full pay, active list.' At the time of the census he was 28 years old, so he was born in or about 1853. He also appears on the 1871 census, living with his family at 16 Grosvenor Place, London. His father was William Jones Loyd, a landowner and magistrate. The house was staffed by sixteen servants.

On 14 August 1879 Lewis Loyd married Lady Maria Sophia Hely-Hutchinson, elder daughter of the fourth Earl of Donoughmore, but for fourteen years he also kept a mistress, Miss Rosalba Valiquet, who lived in a house staffed by seven servants, on Gower Street, under the name of 'Mrs Loyd.' Details of the relationship were printed in the press in July 1908. The lady had apparently sued a former maid, but was then sued by her own solicitors who were attempting to recover their fees. Subsequently, Miss Valiquet was prosecuted for forging the General's cheques, and for stealing furniture from the house in which he had maintained her.

Lewis Vivian Loyd died on 21 September 1908 at 69 Onslow Gardens, London. He left effects valued at £1043.

[From an album compiled by Elizabeth Van de Weyer, wife of the Belgian ambassador to the Court of St James. The adjacent carte in the album shows Lewis Vivian Loyds's sisters, Gertrude, Edith and Gwendoline.]