Jock Lewes: Co-founder of the SAS

John Lewes

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2000
• eBook ISBN: 9781526788351
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

Jock Lewes was a dashing young Welsh Guards officer who created a new approach to modern warfare in the SAS with less than two year's experience as a soldier. By the age of twenty-seven Jock co-founded the SAS with David Stirling. Jock was in reality the trainer and 'brains' behind this now legendary fighting force and this stunning biography describes the extent of his contribution.
Jock was brought up in Australia during the Depression and later educated at Oxford. Life was rarely dull and he packed it with action and achievement. His Presidency of the Oxford University Boat Club saw Oxford breaking Cambridge University's succession of thirteen wins. Preparing for a job at the Foreign Office, Jock spent several seasons in Berlin. The record of his passion for two women, one a Nazi, the other a young linguist at Somerville College, Oxford, are part of a teeming richness of writing which he left in letters, journals and poems. His death was no less dramatic than his life: after successful raids on enemy aerodromes with his invention of Lewes Bombs, he was hunted down by a Messerschmitt 110 fighter.
A highly important addition to ever popular SAS literature. Jock Lewes was the brain behind the formation of the Special Air Service.

PART 1

Childhood and Youth in Sydney, Australia

1

Parent and Child

‘The child is father to the man’

Jock was greatly influenced by his father, Arthur Lewes. An explanation of the make-up of a dour but doting parent highlights the character of young Jock’s mould. Victorian Puritanism was impressed upon him from an early age after Arthur had completed his service as a senior partner of Lovelock and Lewes, the Calcutta chartered accountants. Arthur settled for early retirement to be with his young family at the Lewes home just outside Sydney in Bowral, NSW; he was only fifty-three and still in the prime of his life. His own strict upbringing had a powerful impact on his family. Arthur’s own father had only ever expressed love for his sixth and last child on his deathbed with a ‘dear boy’ as his parting words, and Arthur’s mother, who gave birth to him at the age of fifty-four, became a somewhat remote figure since she was self-conscious at having become pregnant in the first place.

In spite of the maturity of his mother, all the evidence suggests that Arthur was the legitimate son of both his parents rather than the illegitimate and adopted offspring of a daughter or a niece. Eyebrows were raised. Today the ability to conceive late in life has become a laudable activity; in 1869 members of the local congregation regarded late conception as impropriety. If you spent your time playing shove-half-penny and indulging in the physical pleasures, such feats of fertility were entirely possible, but not if you purported to be a member of the genteel society of Lewisham where Arthur’s ancestors had been Chief Victuallers to the Royal Navy at Greenwich, London, since the time of Samuel Pepys.

It seems that the last in the line of Leweses was regarded as a ‘mistake’ at home in Lewisham and an embarrassment abroad; Arthur was a pest to a growing family. Thus Jock’s grandparents quickly found a governess and nanny to whisk his unfortunate father out of sight and, to all appearances, out of mind; these were not easy times for the smallest of a very able bunch of siblings. Arthur’s nanny, ‘Fanny’, was the provider of love and care and ultimately the one who was responsible for nurturing his emotional intelligence; she had plenty of opportunities to do so since she stayed with the family for sixty years. Her sense of Christian duty was probably easier for Arthur to stomach, but it did not prevent him from running away from school three times. As he grew up, he discovered that in his family he was expected to do everything that he was told. When his older brother Samuel ignored a warning to return home punctually in the evenings, Arthur discovered that at 10 p.m. one night the door had been locked and Samuel informed by a notice that he was not welcome. Young Arthur never saw him again; this prodigal son did not return. It is possible to see that Arthur in turn could be a remote role model for his own children, but any love and affection that he had received as a lad he was determined to pass on to his own children and, it seems, to Jock in particular.

Jock Lewes was born on 21 December 1913 in Calcutta and he, his elder sister Elizabeth and his mother, Elsie Lewes, travelled to Elsie’s native Australia to settle in the new family home of ‘Fernside’ when he was only two years of age. Jock’s father took leave from Lovelock and Lewes every two years to visit his family in the face of the quiet disapproval from some of Elsie’s sisters that a newly wed mother deserved a husband who was nearer at hand. Arthur was repeating a family tradition that his parents had set in the previous generation, except that any distance that he might have felt in his relations with his wife and children were exacerbated by his decision to work in an entirely different continent.

Arthur’s move to Calcutta from Oxford enabled him to meet Elsie. It was 1895 when Arthur joined his brother Herbert in Calcutta at the Lovelock and Lewes firm that Arthur later chaired. After leaving Oxford Arthur had set his heart on a career in the civil service, but he had not taken a degree in his favourite subject, in which he had excelled at the Royal Naval College. His masters there had exhausted the number of gold medals for classical scholarship which they could award Arthur. Winning a maths scholarship to Oxford, he opted for the mathematics that might have introduced him to remarkable storytellers like Charles Dodgson but brought him little kudos at graduation. Denying himself the first class degree in Classics that the civil service had required, he took a third and settled for the family firm. He had been an excellent classical scholar and an able mathematician, but he did not seek the relative comfort of remaining in Oxford as a don. His morale had been dampened by an uncharacteristic error of being absent from his exam for the civil service. In those circumstances the firm of Lovelock and Lewes was an attractive alternative, however far away it might be. A series of return trips from Calcutta to Southampton created his first meeting with Elsie, then Elsie Robertson. In 1909 Elsie made her voyage from Tilbury to Sydney on the Aberdeen & Commonwealth’s vessel, the Multoon. She had just completed her postgraduate course at Queen’s Square with distinction; the family fold beckoned as her father lay dying of tuberculosis.

Arthur stood out from the rest of the passengers on the Multoon. There may well have been ladies’ egg-and-spoon races on the ship or protracted sessions of housey-housey, both being popular pastimes. If this was so, then Elsie probably plumped for Mr Lewes’s intellect, bearing, good looks and voice which she might have heard on deck, partly because Arthur was unlikely to be found shouting ‘house’ below it. On such a trip he finished his twice-yearly leave in England and noted that he had met a ‘young lady with whom I talked at length’. In those days the Multoon’s crossing to Sydney would have taken some six weeks. Arthur had embarked at Marseilles in order to avoid the longer and rougher voyage via the Bay of Biscay, but he would still have had ample opportunity to befriend Elsie before disembarking at Calcutta. Ladies’ egg-and-spoon races would have had few heats because most of the passengers on the Multoon were men going out to join the Colonial Service. At Port Said many of them trooped off to watch the locals belly-dancing; Arthur remained on board. Elsie delighted in his ‘wonderful resonant voice’; her first impressions were that he was either a nobleman or a minister, or an amalgam of the two. The chartered accountant replied that her chosen career of nursing, ‘was the noblest profession that a woman could have’. Before Arthur disembarked at Port Said for Calcutta he made a request, ‘Miss Robertson, you will let me know how your father is?’ It was difficult not to comply.

Jock’s parents corresponded almost daily. In those days frequent correspondence was usual, but, even by the standards of the time, theirs was profuse, continuing even when they were apart for only a few days. Elsie, based in Sydney, wrote to Arthur who lived at the Bengal Club in Calcutta. For the next few years correspondence became as lengthy as the conversations on the Multoon. Winning a mate can be a risky business, not least for a Victorian gentleman who had been brought up to overcome any vulnerability that he might have felt, except in the face of God. At the Bengal Club, Arthur had whiled away the hours playing duets and chamber music with German bachelor friends of whom he was especially fond. The Club, for all its attractions and mod cons, was unlikely to keep him forever in Calcutta. Eventually, too, Arthur tired of those members that were determined to rot their livers with brandy; but he still made it his base for the next fourteen years. It may not have been easy to give up the comfort of the Club, except on leave. His loyal manservant, his khansamah, attended to most needs and accompanied Arthur to the cooler climes of Darjeeling that afforded a welcome respite from the incredible heat. David Lewes, Jock’s youngest sibling, remembered that ‘both men gave great respect to one another’ and Arthur’s khansamah ‘never broke one piece of crockery in twenty-five years of service, and never forgot to pay a scribe to write letters of gratitude for his pension during the next twenty-five.’

Moderation was a policy with Arthur. Once married, his accountancy skills kept all household spending in check. Before he wed Elsie in 1911, ‘All things in moderation’ was a maxim that was taken to extremes when, after two years of happy correspondence with Elsie, Arthur was somewhat economic with the truth about the reason for his projected voyage to Elsie’s native Australia. The pretext for his visit was to stay with distant relatives in Melbourne, but ‘he never visited his relations but ploughed onto Sydney in order to seek out Elsie Robertson’. Arthur located the young nurse at Dorrigo and ‘gave notice of his visit to her sisters with whom she was staying’. Elsie may have been under the impression that Arthur was just making a brief stop along his itinerary. Elsie’s mother and sisters were intrigued by the letters that had been arriving from Arthur. On his envelopes the ‘E’ for Elsie was written with a certain flourish, and he had quickly become known as ‘the “E” man’. Elsie protected the nature of the correspondence for a time by announcing, ‘Oh, he’s a married man.’ She was certainly impressed by Arthur’s intellectual capacity and politesse; her natural love and affection for him had been sealed in correspondence.

In setting about winning Elsie’s hand Arthur had not only to undertake the ocean crossing to Australia, he also had to embrace an entirely new culture in the outback. Dorrigo was a long way from the niceties of the Bengal Club: setting out for Dorrigo meant a journey of some distance by road. Arthur was met by one of Elsie’s brothers-in-law, Jack Edgley, recently returned from the war with a DSO. A sartorially elegant Arthur, David remembered, was ‘spruced up in his best outfit squeezed into Jack’s sulky with pristine leather bags that were bundled into the trap’. The two men broke their journey at an inn and enjoyed their meal; whether Arthur was as enthusiastic about the limited accommodation is less certain: they had to share a double bed. Arthur’s youngest child recalls that ‘this austere and gentle Englishman took it all in good spirit, spurred on by his objective of winning Elsie’s hand’. The journey might have seemed rather testing for Arthur when Jack pulled his shotgun out of the trap, shooting rabbits and other game (for fellow pioneers) as they wound their way to Dorrigo.

Jock was brought up by a father who was parsimonious but also capable of the occasional bout of excess. Arthur and Jack were greeted by the beautiful and well-turned-out Molly Edgley at Dorrigo. Without much ado Arthur proposed to Molly’s sister who accepted; the immediate problem was not the cost of the wedding ring ‘but when to get married’. Elsie had been sent to Sydney to purchase a ring and later informed Arthur that she had chosen the most beautiful and, incidentally, the most expensive ring in the whole display. After they had married in Strathfield Church, the couple honeymooned in the Blue Mountains. As if there wasn’t enough haze already, caused by the eucalyptus vapour that produced the blue light in the region, Arthur decided to pack half a dozen bottles of champagne, breaking once again with his principle of moderation. A suite of rooms was taken at Wentworth Falls. Carping relations, who had warned ‘marry in haste and repent at leisure’ were royally entertained but also silenced by the delicious food and wine that was served at the Australia Hotel before the newly wedded couple sailed for London to enjoy the remainder of Arthur’s leave. On their return to India they rented a little house in Calcutta for the next few years; Elizabeth was born in June 1912 and Jock arrived one and a half years later. The youngest, David, was born in Sydney in 1915.

Jock was named John as a baby and was christened on 24 March 1914. Arthur and Elsie, who were together in Calcutta for their first two years of marriage, might well have noted this day as special. Later on Jock would have certainly made the day of his baptism a red-letter day, because it marked the staging of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race when Jock was President of the Oxford crew exactly thirty-three years later. Arthur would have remembered that day also because it was St Thomas’s Day: when Elsie brought Jock towards the font of St Paul’s Cathedral, Calcutta, the Reverend R.H. Stuart, who was performing the ceremony, had the temerity to suggest that they name their son Thomas after the saint. Arthur dispossessed the Reverend of this idea swiftly and surely, for no son of his would be allowed to present the minister with an opportunity to celebrate a doubting Thomas. The proud parents called their son after the ‘graciousness of God’, John; they were not bringing their son into the world for faithlessness.

Jock was brought up at a distance by his father, who remained in Calcutta for most of the first eight years of Jock’s life. Arthur was conscious of the physical separation that existed between himself and his family and made considerable efforts to share his life in India with Jock and Elizabeth, as his illustrated letters to the children suggest. For someone with his background he showed imagination in attempting to entertain his children from afar. His letters are good learning aids in that they educated Jock in the life of the last days of the Raj; he was allowed into his father’s world. The boy received stories of wild animals that tested the bravest of hunters. To an illustration that he had sent Jock, Arthur added his own caption: ‘The man with a gun will have to be careful, for if he misses it will be Mr Tiger’s turn, and he won’t shoot because Father is a long way off and he wants his boy to do it for him.’ Arthur did not forget to finish the letter with ‘God bless you my son: here is my love and kiss from your loving father.’ This was a far cry of hope and affection, but a far cry from the absence of love that Arthur had experienced when he was five. He sent coloured drawings of tigers and crocodiles to his son and tropical flowers to his daughter. Political correctness did not enter into his Edwardian outlook on life, and the children appeared not to suffer from his thoughtful and stimulating missives! His enthusiasm for and love of learning was to make a powerful impact on all his children. Yet Arthur could not monitor all the activities of his sons at school; he was unaware that David’s ingenuity had outwitted the requirements of the first public telephone system. The boy had managed to rig up a long piece of cardboard sturdy enough to insert into the phone’s coin slot resulting in unlimited calls across hundreds of miles of brand new telegraph poles.

Arthur was not culled like so many of his generation at Gallipoli. When he had presented himself for recruitment in 1914, he slipped through the net of military service when an incorrect medical examination forced him back into ‘civvy’ street. He had served at Dum Dum barracks where he contracted amoebic dysentery. Later, Elsie’s cousin, Ruth Steel, who was in charge of a field hospital at Gallipoli, may well have informed Arthur how fortunate he had been in having a wrong diagnosis: he appeared to be diabetic as there was far too much sugar in his urine sample; military service was out of the question. It was fortunate for Jock that his father possessed all the symptoms of the condition, but in fact only suffered from a low renal threshold. Arthur abstained from sugar for the rest of his life and Jock retained a father who could continue to guide him from the Bengal Club.

Jock learned to endure a spartan regime at home. On his retirement in 1923, Arthur made his last journey to Bowral from Calcutta and his family adjusted to new routines and habits. David observed that the severity of his father’s disposition, as Arthur swept into the Serpentine Drive, was such that he ‘cleared off quickly, and well out of the way. I think he was a serious-minded man who was so given to abstract thought and contemplation, unmoved in many ways by the trite and trivial aspects of life; he certainly possessed sterling qualities.’ He was stern: Elizabeth and her brothers were made to walk the mile and a half to the early service and back ‘without passing food to mouth’; this was not uncommon at the time. The combination of walks, faith and abstinence were later to play a great part in Jock’s military career.

Jock grew up to respect the needs of others. Arthur often practised what he preached, and ten percent of his sizeable income was automatically donated to the Church each year. In the years of the Depression when the children were just in their teens, Jock never saw a hungry stranger turned away at the door; wandering victims of the economic crash left Fernside after a hearty meal that Elsie gladly provided. David remembered that his parents’ unselfishness had a direct influence on Jock who, having a strong sense of selfhood, never forgot the needs of those around him, especially those who were dependants. Arthur and Elsie strove hard to instil into their children their own pursuit of excellence: ‘Their integrity, high ideals and generosity to others were captured by Jock and made part of his own nature.’ Jock did sometimes challenge the authority of his father, for the boys enjoyed breaking the laws of home and country on more than a few occasions, but David later recalled, ‘Jock conformed more easily and consequently absorbed more of the homilies and philosophy. He usually managed to evade punishment through a combination of experience and intelligence,’ and more often than not because he did not have to suffer the personality clash that David experienced with his father.

The Lewes family usually enjoyed excellent health. At Fernside Daisy the cow provided fresh milk daily and, although food was never wasted, there was always plenty of everything. Bowral, where the ferns not only provided shade but also a moist environment, was cooler than neighbouring Sydney; nonetheless the sun was a welcome ingredient in what was mainly an outdoor life. Jock grew stronger each year on the philosophy that his father knew would not fall on deaf ears, and a lifestyle that a wealthy chartered accountant could provide. Elsie Lewes, granddaughter of the Reverend Steel, had trained at the Royal Prince Albert Hospital in Sydney as a nurse and taken a postgraduate course in England at Queen’s Square Hospital, which was in the forefront of neurological research. Her love and care of her children with expert skills were needed on more than one occasion. Elsie delivered her youngest herself and David might have died of pneumonia but for Daisy’s milk and Mother’s nursing. Jock, like David, courted danger from an early age, and a hand that was both benevolent and patient healed wounds inflicted by experiments and pranks conducted by the boys.

The young Jock was surrounded by beauty that would elevate any spirit. He was two when his parents purchased Fernside, and the roughness of the outdoors was complemented by the serenity and charm of the gardens there. The Serpentine Drive was designed by the original owner, a German philosopher called Dr Robinson. The doctor had planted every tree that was mentioned in the Bible, including the Hollyman Tree. This suited Arthur and Elsie well and may have been one reason for Arthur’s decision to purchase Fernside. David remembered how the garden ‘lifted any heart and mind’: it was a treasure for Jock whose great benefit was that he shared it with a family who realized how fortunate they were to enjoy such beauty. The flora and fauna at Fernside have continued to be well appreciated and maintained, and with the skill of other occupants have become one of Australia’s most prized gardens; paddocks, fields and ferns continue to provide an ideal place for a boy to grow, and so it was for Jock. Roses adorned the summerhouse; there was a magical walk from the lawns; pond, fir and nut trees overlooked the wilderness where Daisy would graze at the edge of the estate by Captain Broadbent’s farm: mythi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword by the Earl Jellicoe
• Introduction
• Prologue
• Part 1 : Childood and Youth in Sydney, Australia
• Part 2 : Manhood in Oxford and Europe
• Part 3 : Maturity in the Middle East
• Appendix
• Jock’s family, friends and colleagues during and after the war
• Abbreviations
• Interviews and Documents
• Bibliography