Major GeneralDavid Lanyon Lloyd Owen,CB, DSO, OBE, MC (10 October 1917 – 5 April 2001) was a British soldier and writer. During the Second World War he commanded theLong Range Desert Group.^[1]

Born inHampton, in the county ofMiddlesex, England, on 10 October 1917, David Lloyd-Owen was the son of Captain Reginald Charles Lloyd-Owen. He was educated atWinchester College and theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst. Uponpassing out from the latter, he wascommissioned as asecond lieutenant into theQueen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) on 27 January 1938.^[2][3] He was with the 2nd Battalion of his regiment, then commanded byLieutenant ColonelRobert Ross, inPalestine during theArab revolt. Among Lloyd Owen's fellow officers in the battalion wasMichael Forrester, another futuremajor general. He later served in theWestern Desert from 1939 to July 1941, during theSecond World War, when he joined theLong Range Desert Group (LRDG).

Lloyd Owen took part in a number of operations, including theSAS raid onTobruk in August/September 1942, which earned him theMilitary Cross. He was wounded in anair raid on the LRDG base atKufra in October 1942 and nearly lost an arm. He rejoined the LRDG in February 1943, when they underwent training inLebanon before being sent to theAegean.

Lloyd Owen took command of the LRDG at the end of 1943 after the death of his predecessorJake Easonsmith during theBattle of Leros. He based himself atBari in southern Italy from which he mounted a successful raid onCorfu and staged operations in theDalmatian islands andYugoslavia. In September 1944, he was parachuted intoAlbania at night. Shortly after landing he fell 30 ft into a ravine and severely damaged his spine.^[4]

Despite being in continual pain, Lloyd Owen directedspecial forces operations in the mountains for the next three months. Eventually he was evacuated to Italy, was successfully operated on, and told not to return to his former activities. He managed to bluff his way past a medical board and returned to Albania, although this time by boat. The LRDG was eventually disbanded in June 1945. For his leadership in theBalkans, Lloyd Owen was awarded theDistinguished Service Order that year.

After the war, Lloyd Owen had various appointments in Britain, including a period on the staff atSandhurst. In 1952, he was appointed Military Assistant to the High Commissioner inMalaya. He then commanded the 1st Battalion of theQueen's Royal Regiment from 1957 to 1959. In the early 1960s he led the 24th Infantry Brigade Group inKenya and was then, from 1966 to 1968,General Officer Commanding (GOC), Cyprus District. From 1968 to 1969 he was GOC, Near East Land Forces and, from 1969 to 1972, president of the Regular Commissions Board. He was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire in 1954 andCompanion of the Order of the Bath in 1971.

Lloyd Owen wrote two books about his experiences –The Desert My Dwelling Place published byCassell in 1957 and again byPanther Books the following year, and laterLong Range Desert Group 1940–1945: Providence Their Guide, republished byLeo Cooper/Pen and Sword Books in 2001.

Lloyd Owen married Ursula Barclay (known as Ursie) and had three sons; Michael, Piers and Christopher.

• Maclean, Fitzroy.Eastern Approaches. Jonathan Cape Ltd.
• Kennedy Shaw, Bill.Long Range Desert Group. Collins.

• British Army Officers 1939−1945
• LRDG website info on David Lloyd Owen taken from his Daily Telegraph obituary
• Lloyd Owen, David Lanyon (Oral history) – 1987 interview by Imperial War Museum

• 1917 births
• 2001 deaths
• Academics of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
• Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies
• British Army major generals
• British Army personnel of World War II
• British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine
• Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
• Companions of the Order of the Bath
• Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
• Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley
• Officers of the Order of the British Empire
• People educated at Winchester College
• People from Hampton, London
• Queen's Royal Regiment officers
• Recipients of the Military Cross
• Long Range Desert Group personnel
• Military personnel from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• EngvarB from November 2017
• Use dmy dates from November 2017