Jock Lewes Co-Founder of the SAS

 

This biography of the man who founded, with David Stirling, the specialist fighting force that became the SAS, is written by his nephew. Lewes, interested in small, fast-moving, well-equipped forces from boyhood, devised the methods that ensured the SAS was able to perform its incredible feats.

Credit for the formation in 1941 of the Special Air Service, today the World's most respected special force unit, has traditionally been given to David Stirling. This, as those 'in the know' acknowledge, is only part of the truth. Jock Lewes, a young Welsh Guards officer, was at least equally responsible and yet, until now, his character and contribution have never been closely studied.

Drawing on hitherto unpublished personal journals, this account of Lewes's life, tragically cut short on 31 December 1941 during an SAS deep penetration patrol, makes for compelling reading. Brought up in the Australian outback where he learnt self-discipline and self-reliance, he went on to have a brilliant career at Oxford University; as President of the Boat Club he was instrumental in the dramatic 1937 victory against Cambridge. Thereafter he spent time in pre-war Berlin where he was at first seduced by Hitler's socialist policies and by a young Nazi supporter, one of the two loves of his life, but soon became disillusioned, establishing links with opposition factions.

Despite his lack of military experience, Jock quickly proved himself a radical tactical thinker and brilliant leader and trainer of men, a rare combination. He also developed, and gave his name to, the lethally effective Lewes Bomb. His exceptional talents found expression in the development of the SAS concept and ethos. Without his and David Stirling's partnership there would have been no Special Air Service; as Sitrling later chivalrously admitted, 'Jock Lewes could far more genuinely claim to be the founder of the SAS than I'.

As well as being the long overdue biography of this highly gifted and complex individual, Jock Lewes, Co-Founder of the SAS, is a major contribution to the bibliography of British Special Forces.

Lord Jellicoe's Foreword fully endorses this biography: "It is described with skill and authority".

John Lewes
Hardcover with d/w 266pp  Pen & Sword Books 2000 1st Ed

 

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Book Code:  SA0035