Walter Boyd

Born around 1754 in Scotland, Boyd was a banker in Paris in the run up to the French Revolution, then fled to London as the situation escalated. He was a supporter of and friend to William Pitt the Younger, and MP for Shaftesbury. His firm, and subsequently Boyd himself, were financially ruined by the French Revolution. He visited France during the Peace of Amiens, was detained, and was only released with Napoleon’s fall in 1814, whereupon he returned to England, was able to regain some wealth, and ultimately became MP for Lymington.