British Admirals of the Fleet by T A Heathcote

Author:T A Heathcote
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2002-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

LEWIN

Sir TERENCE THORNTON, Baron Lewin, KG, GCB, LVO,

DSC (1920–1999) [110]

Terry Lewin, the younger son in a family of two children of an executive officer in the Office of Works, was born at Dover, Kent, on 19 November 1920 and was educated at The Judd School, Tonbridge. He joined the Navy in January 1939 by the recently enlarged Special Entry scheme and, after completing his initial cadet course in the training cruiser Frobisher, went to sea in May 1939 in the training cruiser Vindictive. On the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 he was appointed a midshipman in the cruiser Belfast in the Home Fleet. After Belfast was disabled by a German mine on 21 November 1939 he was transferred to the battleship Valiant. Lewin served as a midshipman in this ship successively in the Home Fleet during the Norwegian campaign in May 1940, in Force H in the bombardment of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir (3 July 1940) and in the Mediterranean Fleet, where he came under Italian air attack. He returned home to become an acting sub-lieutenant at the beginning of his promotion courses in April 1941 and joined the destroyer Highlander on 4 October 1941. He took part in the battle of the Atlantic on convoy escort duties, but in November 1941 was sent to hospital with diphtheria. After recovering, he was appointed as gunnery control officer in the destroyer Ashanti in January 1942. Between March and June 1942 Ashanti escorted three Arctic convoys to Northern Russia. Lewin was mentioned in despatches and was later promoted to lieutenant with seniority from 1 July 1942.

During August 1942 Ashanti took part in a major convoy action to reinforce Malta, in which Lewin was at his station in the gunnery control tower for a total of 60 hours. This operation, together with his experience in other convoys, left him with a lasting admiration of the Merchant Service. In September, again escorting Arctic convoys, Ashanti took in tow her torpedoed sister-ship Somali to which he led a boat-party in an attempt to re-establish electrical power. After working for several hours in bitterly cold water, he succeeded, but the weather deteriorated and Somali broke up and sank after a tow of 420 miles. Lewin was awarded the DSC for his part in rescuing survivors.

In January 1943 he became first lieutenant of Ashanti, in which he took part in the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942, in further Arctic convoys in 1943, and in the seaward defence of the Allied landings in Normandy (6 June 1944). He was mentioned in despatches a second time for a night action in which his flotilla sank a German destroyer (9 June 1944) and a third time when it intercepted a German convoy off St Nazaire (5 August 1944). In February 1944 he married Jane Branch-Evans, a Leading Wren in the Women’s Royal Naval Service and the daughter of the rector of St Lawrence’s church, Sigglesthorne, East Yorkshire. They later had a family of two sons and a daughter.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.