Lloyd, Henry

Born circa 1720, in Cwmbychan, Merionethshire, Wales; died June 19, 1783, in Huy, Belgium. Military historian and theoretician. Welsh by nationality.

Lloyd served in the French Army in the 1740’s and in the Austrian, Russian, and Prussian armies in the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) and commanded a division in the Russian Army in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74. Afterward he lived in England, Holland, and Belgium. Lloyd drew general conclusions from the strategy of his epoch and formulated it as a system. He was one of the first military writers to emphasize the close link between war and politics and the importance of political and morale factors and of national characteristics. Lloyd theoretically substantiated the dominant strategy of the 18th century, which was based on the magazine system of supply, and introduced the concepts of the military magazine depot (the place where the main magazines are located) and the operational line (the route from the magazine depot to the area of operations). He also laid out methods for conducting offensive and defensive wars. Lloyd’s theory was, to an extent, dogmatic and inconsistent.