Jock Lewes

{{Infobox military person

| name = Jock Lewes

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption = Jock Lewes

| birth_name = John Steel Lewes

| nickname = Jock

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|12|21|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Calcutta, Bengal, British India

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1941|12|30|1913|12|21|df=yes}}

| death_place = El Gaus, Cyrenaica, Italian Libya

| placeofburial =

| allegiance = United Kingdom

| branch = British Army

| serviceyears = 1935–1941

| rank = Lieutenant

| servicenumber = 65419

| unit = Rifle Brigade
Welsh Guards
L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade

| commands =

| battles = Second World War

| awards =

| memorials = Alamein Memorial

| relations =

| laterwork =

}}

Lieutenant John Steel "Jock" Lewes (21 December 1913 – 30 December 1941) was a British Army officer prominent during the Second World War. He was the founding principal training officer of the Special Air Service.Army News [Australia], 11 January 1945, p3. Its founding commander, David Stirling, said later of Lewes, "Jock could far more genuinely claim to be founder of the SAS than I."{{cite book |last=Lewes |first=John |date=15 March 2001 |title=Jock Lewes: Co-Founder of the SAS |url=https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Jock-Lewes-Co-Founder-of-the-SAS-Paperback/p/207 |location=Barnsley |publisher=Pen and Sword Books |isbn=9781844156153 }} Lewes also invented an explosive device for use by the SAS, the eponymous Lewes bomb.

Early life, family and education

File:Rex Whistler - Lieutenant Jock Lewes, co-founder of the SAS 1940.jpg (at the time a fellow officer in the Welsh Guards)]]

Lewes was born in Calcutta 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, New South Wales.The Southern Mail (Bowral), 19 January 1945, p. 1. As a teenager he attended The King's School, Parramatta.

Lewes travelled to the United Kingdom to attend Christ Church, Oxford, from September 1933, where he read philosophy, politics and economics. In 1936–37, he was president of the Oxford University Boat Club. 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 Southern Mail (Bowral), 4 May 1937, p. 2. and ending a 15-year winning streak by Cambridge.{{cite ODNB |first=Fiona |last=McPherson|title=Lewes, John Steel (1913–1941) |year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/74291 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/74291}}{{cite web|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2123371|title=Commonwealth War Graves Commission – casualty details, John Steel Lewes|publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission|accessdate=21 February 2008}} Lewes travelled to Berlin to work for the British Council and, before the events of Kristallnacht in 1938, was briefly an admirer of Hitler and the Nazi state.{{cite news |last=Hill |first=Amelia |date=23 July 2000 |title=SAS founder was a Nazi sympathiser |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jul/23/ameliahill.theobserver |newspaper=The Observer |access-date=2 March 2017}}

A younger brother, David Steel Lewes, was later prominent as a cardiologist in the United Kingdom and was a Royal Air Force medical officer during the war.[https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/david-steel-lewes Royal College of Physicians, 2019, David Steel Lewes] (31 March 2020).

Military career

=Early career=

Lewes was first commissioned to the British Army's General List as a university candidate on 5 July 1935, while a student at Oxford.{{London Gazette|issue=34177|page=4345|date=5 July 1935}} At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was briefly transferred to a Territorial Army unit, the 1st Battalion, Tower Hamlets Rifles, Rifle Brigade on 2 September 1939 before joining the Welsh Guards on 28 October.{{London Gazette|issue=34685|page=6338|date=15 September 1939|supp=y}}
- {{London Gazette|issue=34719|page=7254|date=27 October 1939|supp=y}}

=SAS=

In 1941, Lewes was in a group of volunteers assembled by David Stirling to form a unit dedicated to raiding missions against the lines of communication of Axis forces in North Africa. For military deception and counterespionage purposes, this platoon-sized group was at first officially known as "L" Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade.{{cite book |last=Macintyre |first=Ben |title=Rogue Warriors |date=2016 |publisher=Crown Publishing Group |location=New York |isbn=978-1-101-90416-9 |pages=25–28}}

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 Lewes bomb was used throughout the Second World War.

=Death=

In late December 1941, Lewes was involved in an SAS/Long Range Desert Group 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" (El Gaus; Arco dei Fileni),{{cite book |author=Tim Jones |title=SAS Zero Hour: The Secret Origins of the Special Air Service |location=Barnsley, S. Yorks. |publisher=Pen & Sword Books |page=204}} Lewes was reportedly hit in the thigh by a 20 mm cannon round and died at the scene of the attack.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8934144/Family-of-SAS-pioneer-to-travel-to-Libya-to-find-soldiers-grave.html |title=Family of SAS pioneer to travel to Libya to find soldier's grave |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=4 December 2011 |access-date=21 November 2022}}

=Recognition=

Lewes is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial.

Personal life

At the time of his death, Lewes was engaged to marry Mirren Barford, an Oxford undergraduate. Their love letters were collected and published by Barford's son in 1995.{{cite web |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sas-founder-dazzled-third-reich-9768972 |title=SAS founder was 'dazzled' by Third Reich and even fell in love with NAZI socialite in run-up to WW2 |work=The Daily Mirror |author=Sophie Evans |date=6 February 2017 |access-date=11 November 2022}}
- {{cite book |title=Joy Street: A Wartime Romance in Letters |author=Mirren Barford |isbn=978-0316911351}}

In popular culture

Lewes was depicted by Alfie Allen in the 2022 television historical drama SAS: Rogue Heroes.{{cite news |last1=Nicholson |first1=Rebecca |title=SAS: Rogue Heroes review – is the follow up to Peaky Blinders fun? Does Arthur Shelby like a drink? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/30/sas-rogue-heroes-review-is-the-follow-up-to-peaky-blinders-fun-does-arthur-shelby-like-a-drink |access-date=31 October 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=30 October 2022}}