Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant G. L. Lewis, Lancashire Fusiliers, who died of wounds at the battle of the Somme on 9 July 1916

British War and Victory Medals (Lieut.) nearly extremely fine (2) £160-200

Graham Lawson Lewis was born on 25 May 1892, the eldest son of Frederick Lawson Lewis, solicitor and clerk to the Lewes Magistrates of Benenden, Eastbourne and St. Swithuns, Lewes. Educated at St. Cyprians Prep School and Harrow School (1906-11) in Mr Warner’s House, he excelled both academically and in sports. He played for the Harrow Football XI, 1908-10 and was Captain in 1910; the Cricket XI in 1910; the Torpid Fives (won with T. B. Wilson) in 1908 and the Cockhouse Fives in 1910. At the outbreak of war he volunteered for service and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1914. He entered the France/Flanders theatre of war in May 1915 but was invalided home in December that year with a dislocated shoulder. He returned to France in May 1916. As an illustration of his ‘devil-may-care’ disposition; at the time Warsaw was evacuated by the Russians, he performed a characteristically plucky feat. The Germans serving in the trenches opposite triumphantly erected a small board containing the news “Warsaw capitulated’. During the night, at considerable risk, Lieutenant Lewis crept across no-mans land and secured the board as a trophy, much to the chagrin of the Germans when they discovered their loss the next morning. Lieutenant Lewis was serving with the 4th, attached 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, when he was mortally wounded on 8 July 1916, in the battle of the Somme. He died the following day at Le Treport and was buried at Le Treport Military Cemetery.

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