Tributes paid as spy trainer dies at age 102
TRIBUTES have been paid to a 102-year-old who grew up in Henbury, fought during World War 2 and helped train spies during the Cold War.
Charles Courtenay Lloyd died at home in Madrid, Spain, on November 8 – just days before Remembrance Day – surrounded by his loving family who said he had “lived life to the full”.
He was born in Amington, Staffordshire, on May 1, 1919 to the Rev John Collins Lloyd and Dorothy Gertrude Scull, an accomplished pianist. The family later moved to Henbury, where Mr Lloyd was vicar, and Charles remembered Henbury as a beautiful place to spend his formative years.
Charles went to Clifton College and was later a graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge.
He was an accomplished linguist who spoke six languages, including
Norwegian, Russian and French.
He served as a WW2 Royal Naval officer, contributed to the Liberation of Norway and was awarded the King Haakon VII “Liberty Medal” for “outstanding services”.
He spent a year after the war attached to the British Admiralty in Oslo where he worked for naval disarmament and took part in a mission to supervise the surrender of the German forces in Norway. There began his love of Norway and the language.
From Oslo he was recruited as an Intelligence officer for the Allied Control Commission in Germany where he helped the country back on its feet and caught Nazis on the run. Having successfully achieved a masters degree from Cambridge, he was later recruited to train Cold War spies in Cambridge.
According to daughter Masha Lloyd he was a “phenomenal” polyglot with a great interest in languages and the origin of words.
He married a Russian princess,
Elena Von Lieven after they shared their first kiss inside the library of the spy school in Salisbury Villas.
“Typical it would be in a library, they were both book mad,” said Masha.
She said her father was loved by all and was a wonderful grandfather to her daughters Suzy and Olivia and great grandfather of Elliot and Juliet.
Masha said: “He was the most amazing father anyone could have and I had the privilege of having
him with me for so many years. That brings me comfort.
“He was always there for me for whatever I needed. He encouraged me in my studies, listening patiently to and correcting the boring history essays I wrote for A levels, visiting me at University and writing to me every week.
“I treasure those letters. He was proud of my becoming a wife and mother and proud of my career. My most cherished memory is of him walking me down the aisle on the day of my wedding.
“I learned so much from him and his positive attitude; mainly that beauty can be glimpsed even in the ugliest places and that happiness is to be found in the small things in life.
“That coming from a man who lost everyone, his brother Raymond of polio, his sister Gloria and her family in an air crash and his own son and wife to cancer, is extraordinary. He showed me you have to go on.
“He is one of a kind and the end of an era, a true English gentleman. They don’t make them like that anymore. So, I shall carry on like he always did and appreciate the good things in life, however small.”