Frederick John (Murray) Lloyd was first appointed in the civil service of the Cape Colony in June 1894. In November that year he became chief constable in the Department of Native Affairs, stationed at Port St Johns. In July 1895 he was appointed also to the (part-time) post of locker and tidewaiter (a title soon changed to outdoor officer) in the Department of Customs, Port St Johns. He retained both positions to at least 1910. Furthermore, from April 1895 to about 1907 he held the additional post of the town's gaoler. He retired in 1913. He and his wife Susannah, born Gladwin, had numerous children.
During 1897 John Lloyd, presumably him, was in charge of a second order meteorological station at Port St Johns for the Meteorological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope. In 1899 this station was downgraded to a third order or climatological station, manned by F.J. Lloyd. However, the next year it was again a second order station, where F.J. Lloyd made regular daily observations for the Meteorological Commission until at least the end of 1908.
