J. H. Lewis

{{Short description|English landowner, farmer and local politician}}

John Hedley Lewis {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DL}} (October 1908 – 28 December 1976) was an English landowner, farmer and local politician, who served as Chairman of Kesteven County Council and Lincolnshire County Council.

Born in October 1908,House of Commons 1959 (London: The Times), p. 153 John Hedley Lewis lived at Birkholme Manor in Corby Glen, a village in Lincolnshire. He went to school at Stubbington House, Fareham, and Malvern College, before graduating from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, with a degree in mathematics. Hedley Lewis served in World War II as an RAF intelligence officer. He was elected to Kesteven County Council in a by-election in July 1954.[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000237/19540709/123/0006 "New County Councillor"]. Stamford Mercury. 9 July 1954. p. 6. He served on it for two decades; by 1964, he was an alderman and its vice-chairman.House of Commons 1964 (London: The Times), p. 97 In 1968 he was unanimously elected chairman of Kesteven County Council and he went on to chair it for five years, before becoming the first chairman of Lincolnshire County Council from its inception as a successor to Kesteven CC in 1973, to November 1976, when he resigned on health grounds."Tribute to former chairman", Lincolnshire Echo, 30 December 1976, p. 7 He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of the county on 31 January 1972.{{London Gazette |issue=45601 |date=17 February 1972 |page=2005 }}

Hedley Lewis unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of Kettering as a Conservative at the 1959 and 1964 general elections.

Hedley Lewis was a keen sportsman. He represented Gloucestershire at tennis.{{cn|date=September 2024}} On 16 September 1949, fishing off Scarborough, he caught a massive tunny (Atlantic bluefin tuna) which weighed {{convert|852|lb|1}}. An objection from the existing British record holder, Lorenzo Mitchell-Henry, with a fish weighing {{convert|851|lb|1}}, was sustained on the grounds that the rope from which Hedley Lewis' fish was hung was wet and therefore excessively heavy.{{cite web|last=Herd|first=Andrew|title=The Scarborough big game fishery|url=http://www.fishingmuseum.org.uk/tunny.html|publisher=Fishing Museum|accessdate=28 June 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228200538/http://www.fishingmuseum.org.uk/tunny.html|archivedate=28 December 2013}}{{refn|name=fileybay|{{cite web|last=Green|first=Anthony|title=Big Game fishing off the Yorkshire coast|url=http://www.fileybay.com/tunnyfish/|work=Welcome to Filey Bay|publisher=Filey Bay Research Group|accessdate=28 June 2013}} }}

He died on 28 December 1976, aged 68."Mr J. H. Lewis", The Times (London), 30 December 1976, p. 12"Mr John Hedley Lewis dies", Lincolnshire Echo, 28 December 1976, p. 1