 He was the son of Henry Llewellyn, who was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council from 1917 to 1922.After leaving school he worked in his father's Gympie newsagency, at South Bingera sugar mill and at the Queensland Meat Export Company in Pinkenba.In 1901 he joined the Citizens Forces as an ambulance bearer and later that year joined the Queensland Ambulance Service Transport Brigade in Brisbane.