Lloyd graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1918 as a regular officer in the artillery and subsequently served in a range of staff and regimental positions in the inter-war years.

[1] Entering the Australian Army in 1915, Lloyd graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in December 1918 as a regular officer in the artillery, too late to see action during the First World War.

[2][3] Lloyd was nicknamed "Gaffer" by the other cadets due to his serious demeanor,[1] and Gavin Long considered him among the "ablest" of the group of officers that joined the Staff Corps at that time.

[4] He was appointed as a lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Force upon completing his training at Duntroon and embarked from Sydney in January 1919, being sent to the United Kingdom and later posted to France.

In December that year, upon being promoted to the rank of colonel,[5] he was posted to the 9th Division as the senior operational officer, serving as chief of staff to Major General Sir Leslie Morshead.

[1][2][7] Following the evacuation of the 9th Division from Tobruk by sea, Lloyd then served as chief liaison officer at AIF Headquarters, Middle East.

[10] In this role he acted as Wavell's chief administrative officer; however, he advocated to the Australian high command against British proposals for I Corps to remain in Java, which he believed was unsound and would likely result in its loss given the precarious tactical situation there, and that instead it should be returned to Australia to be concentrated for operations against the Japanese elsewhere.

[1] In 1946, Lloyd became a senior executive of the Argus & Australasian newspaper, before unsuccessfully seeking Liberal Party pre-selection for a seat in Federal parliament the same year.

[1] Whilst visiting relatives in Western Australia, Lloyd died, aged just 57, of jaundice in the Repatriation General Hospital, in Hollywood, Perth, on 31 May 1956 and was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery.