Claude John Lewis

The photograph is shared by the Trust with kind permission from John Lewis, paternal nephew of Claude John Lewis

Claude John (‘Jack’) Lewis was born in Wandsworth on 16 March 1923 to 31 year old Thomas and 30 year old Marian. They lived in Streatham, and then Cheam, with his younger brother, Tony.

Jack with his younger brother, Tony c.1929

 

My Dad - Tony - lived a long life and, until his death in 2019, talk of Jack would always leave him emotional.

Through the 1930s the two Lewis boys attend The Modern School, Streatham, a small private school utilising what little monies remained from the maternal side of the family. The founder and Headmaster was Major Arthur A. Gunnis, a WW1 veteran of the 131st (Queens). He liked to assemble the children outside and address them from atop a large white horse.

During the Blitz the boys were 'fire-watchers', sitting atop the terrace shops’ roofs. On leaving school, and prior to call up, Jack was training to be an accountant.

Jack enlisted in the Royal Armoured Corps on 23 April 1942 but due to travel sickness - the inside of a tank was not the best place - he transferred out on 14 December and on 21 March 1944 joined the same regiment as his former headmaster - The Queen’s Royal Regiment West Surrey, 1/7 Battalion.

Tony volunteered for Bomber Command and by the summer of ’44 was training as an air gunner before serving in Lancasters – he would survive the war.

Jack was one of 35 in the Signals Platoon assigned to 'HQ Company’. Whilst not a member of the Royal Corps of Signals he carried a heavy radio back-pack and was one of the key components in liaising between the front line and rear command post. The bulky back-pack equipment with its tall aerial maked these men attractive targets for German snipers.

The Queens landed on 8 June at La Riviere, the eastern end of Gold Beach. They were part of the 7th Armoured Brigade’s support infantry with whom they embroiled in the Battle of Villers Bocage. They would then be involved in Operation Goodwood and, after further engagements, be intrinsic to Operation Bluecoat.

Jack was killed on Thursday, 3 August as the 1/7th Battalion fought in the vicinity of Aunay-sur-Odon in the push towards Mont-Pinçon. Initially the family received an interim notification that he was missing; they would not be notified of his death for nearly 2 weeks. The family understood he was shot when glancing over a wall, perhaps a clearer target if wearing his radio backpack. The 1/7th's War Diary records that there were 35 casualties from a Nebelwerfer mortar attack at 9.30pm that included those at Battalion HQ - Jack was attached to the HQ. Another was killed in an after-dark skirmish at 10.30pm.

Jack was buried in a field cemetery at La Monde Ancien, three and a half miles west-north-west of Aunay-sur-Odon. On the 26th October 1945 he was reinterred in Bayeux War Cemetery and a temporary cross erected.

This was later followed by a headstone with an inscription personalised by his parents:

“THE DEAREST SON THE WORLD COULD HOLD WITH TENDER SMILE AND HEART OF GOLD”