He was born in Hanwood, Shropshire, the younger son of Charles Lloyd Jones (1828-1901), who was known as the squire of Hanwood, about three miles from Shrewsbury.
Lloyd-Jones worked in London as an indigo broker (lodging in Hetherington Road, Clapham, in the 1881 census) but during 1884 returned to Shropshire and later moved into Shrewsbury where he set up as a commission agent, i.e. a bookmaker (1891, 1901 and 1911 census).