ABSTRACT
The experimental physicist Humphrey Lloyd, eldest son of the Rev Bartholomew Lloyd (1772-1837) and Eleanor McLaughlin, was born in Dublin on 16 April 1800. He was a direct descendant of Humphrey Lloyd (1656-1727) who came from Denbighshire in Wales and settled in County Wexford in 1683; the family tree reveals the names Bartholomew and Humphrey alternating as direct ancestors over five generations. He received his early education at a private school, Mr White’s School, Dublin, before entering Trinity College in 1815, gaining first prize among 63 competitors at the entrance examination. He profited greatly from the renaissance in mathematical education, initiated at the College by his father, Bartholomew Lloyd, who was Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Greek and Divinity, and in 1831 became Provost of the College.
