Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

John Steel "Jock" Lewes (21 December 1913 – 30 December 1941) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer prominent during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. He was the founding principal training officer of the Special Air Service.''Army News'' ustralia 11 January 1945, p3. Its founding commander,

David Stirling Sir Archibald David Stirling (15 November 1915 – 4 November 1990) was a Scottish officer in the British army, a mountaineer, and the founder and creator of the Special Air Service (SAS). He saw active service during the Second World War. ...

, said later of Lewes: "Jock could far more genuinely claim to be founder of the SAS than I." Lewes also invented an explosive device for the purposes of the SAS, the

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous

Lewes bomb The Lewes bomb was a blast-incendiary field expedient explosive device, manufactured by mixing diesel oil and Nobel 808 plastic explosive. It was created by Lieutenant Jock Lewes, one of the original members of L Detachment SAS in 1941. Histor ...

Early life, family and education

Rex Whistler - Lieutenant Jock Lewes, co-founder of the SAS 1940

Lewes was born in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

to a British father, chartered accountant Arthur Harold Lewes, and an Australian mother, Elsie Steel Lewes. The family moved to Australia and Lewes grew up at

Bowral Bowral () is the largest town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, about ninety minutes southwest of Sydney. It is the main business and entertainment precinct of the Wingecarribee Shire and Highlands. Bowral once served ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

.''The Southern Mail'' (Bowral), 19 January 1945, p. 1. As a teenager he attended

The King's School, Parramatta , motto_translation = "Bravely and Faithfully" , streetaddress = 87–129 Pennant Hills Road , city = North Parramatta, Sydney , state = New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinat ...

. Lewes travelled to the United Kingdom to attend Christ Church, Oxford, from September 1933. At Oxford he read philosophy, politics and economics. In 1936–37, Lewes was president of the

Oxford University Boat Club Oxford University Boat Club (OUBC) is the rowing club for male, heavyweight oarsman of the University of Oxford, England, located on the River Thames at Oxford. The club was founded in the early 19th century. The Boat Race The club races agai ...

; during 1937 he voluntarily gave up his place in the Oxford Blue boat crew, to assist it in winning that year's

University Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. There are separate men's a ...

,''The Southern Mail'' (Bowral), 4 May 1937, p. 2. and ending a 15-year winning streak by Cambridge. Lewes travelled to Berlin to work for the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

and, before the events of ''

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...

'', was briefly an admirer of Hitler and the Nazi state. A younger brother, David Steel Lewes, was later prominent as a

cardiologist Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular ...

in the United Kingdom and served as a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

medical officer during the war. At the time of his death, Jock Lewes was engaged to marry Mirren Barford, an Oxford undergraduate. Their love letters were collected and published by Barford's son in 1995. He was depicted by

Alfie Allen Alfie Evan Allen (born 12 September 1986) is an English actor. He portrayed Theon Greyjoy on all eight seasons of the HBO fantasy series '' Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Out ...

in the 2022 television historical drama '' SAS: Rogue Heroes''.

Military career

Lewes was first commissioned to the British Army's

General List The General Service Corps (GSC) is a corps of the British Army. Role The role of the corps is to provide specialists, who are usually on the Special List or General List. These lists were used in both World Wars for specialists and those not allo ...

as a university candidate on 5 July 1935, while a student at Oxford. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was briefly transferred to a Territorial Army unit, the 1st Battalion,

Tower Hamlets Rifles The 17th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles), was a unit of Britain's Territorial Force formed in 1908 from Volunteer corps dating back to 1859. It saw considerable service on the Western Front, at Saloni ...

, Rifle Brigade on 2 September 1939 before joining the

Welsh Guards The Welsh Guards (WG; cy, Gwarchodlu Cymreig), part of the Guards Division, is one of the Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It was founded in 1915 as a single-battalion regiment, during the First World War, by Royal Warrant of George V. ...

on 28 October. In 1941, Lewes was in a group of volunteers assembled by

to form a unit dedicated to raiding missions against the lines of communication of Axis forces in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. For military deception and counterespionage purposes, this

platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may rang ...

-sized group was at first officially known as "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade. To destroy Axis vehicles, members of the SAS surreptitiously attached small explosive charges. Lewes noticed the respective weaknesses of conventional (blast) and incendiaries, as well as their failure to destroy vehicles in some cases. He improvised a new, combined charge out of plastic explosive, diesel and thermite. The

was used throughout the Second World War. In late December 1941, Lewes was involved in an SAS/ LRDG raid on Axis airfields in Libya. As the raiders returned to Allied lines, their vehicles were repeatedly attacked by Italian and German aircraft. While returning fire on 30 December, near "

Marble Arch The Marble Arch is a 19th-century white marble-faced triumphal arch in London, England. The structure was designed by John Nash in 1827 to be the state entrance to the cour d'honneur of Buckingham Palace; it stood near the site of what is toda ...

" (El Gaus; ''Arco dei Fileni''), Lewes was reportedly hit in the thigh by a 20 mm cannon round and died at the scene of the attack. He is commemorated on the

Alamein Memorial The Alamein Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission war memorial in the El Alamein War Cemetery, El Alamein, Egypt. The memorial commemorates 11,866 Commonwealth forces members who died during World War II. The memorial was designed by ...

Notes

References

*Cowles, Virginia. ''The Phantom Major''. *Wise, Michael, ed. ''Joy Street: A Wartime Romance in Letters''.

External links

British Army Officers 1939–1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Jock 1913 births 1941 deaths Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Welsh Guards officers Rifle Brigade officers Special Air Service officers British Army personnel killed in World War II British people of Australian descent Oxford University Boat Club rowers Australian people of British descent People educated at The King's School, Parramatta People of the British Council Deaths by airstrike during World War II Military personnel from Kolkata British Army officers Military personnel of British India