Squadron Leader AG Lewis

Links of Long Standing

The SAAF Development Programme’s prewar demise influenced many young South Africans including WI Deas, PG Dexter, GJ Drake, J Falkson, AC Hamman, PH Hugo, O Hume, J Ing, AG Lewis, N Lewis, LA Lynn, Spencer Peacock -Edwards, SR Whiting and GM Wright while 26-year-old Michaelhouse educated Guy Paul Wentworth Austin arrived in England on the day war was declared, commissioned as an “acting Pilot on probation” in January 1940 and lost his life 10 months later in a No 9 Squadron Wellington shot down over Germany.

The First Ten Months

The Hawker Hurricane did not share the Fairey Battle and Blenheim’s performance and armament weaknesses but their pilots in France, including South African’s Flight Lt GDL Haysom, Flying Officer’s EJ Morris, Brian Van Mentz, PH Hugo, BP Young and Pilot Officer’s JJ le Roux and AG Lewis endured a baptism of fire against experienced Me 109 Luftwaffe pilots and intense combat conditions.

The First Ten Months

Twenty- two- year- old Pilot Officer AG Lewis flew No 504 Squadron Hurricanes before joining No 85 Squadron in France in April and accounting for two enemy aircraft. On May 19th he shot down five Luftwaffe aircraft and became the first South African Second World War RAF fighter pilot to be awarded the “Distinguished Flying Cross”.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Twenty- two -year-old Pilot Officer AG Lewis DFC having flown No 85 Squadron Hurricanes in France with distinction, was shot down on August 18th, claimed an Me109 on the 31st and crash landed after combat on September 1st. The battle-hardened veteran had already accounted for 10 enemy aircraft when he joined No 249 Squadron on September 14th, claimed an enemy aircraft the next day, another three days later and six on September 27th earning “Ace” status twice in four months. 30 Shot down on the 28th, injuries and temporary blindness 30 kept him off operational flying until January 1941.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Pilot Officer AG Lewis DFC ’s “Battle of Britain” started at RAF Martlesham in Middlesex flying No 85 Squadron Hurricanes under Squadron Leader PW Townsend in July 1940 and on September 14th he joined No 249 Squadron under Squadron Leader J Grandy at RAF Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Pilot Officer AG Lewis was recuperating when the “Bar” to his “Distinguished Flying Cross” was announced in the October 22nd “London Gazette”. That issue also included awards to Flight Lt AC Rabagliati, Squadron Leader TS Rivett- Carnac, a No 37 Squadron Wellington pilot, and fellow South African Flight Lt HE Hopkins, a No 235 Squadron Coastal Command Blenheim pilot.

Against Unfavourable Odds

Given his flying activities, Lewis’s “OTU” posting was not surprising, and neither was the fact that he became non- operational after being shot down in Ceylon in 1942. Squadron Leader AG Lewis DFC and Bar resigned his commission in 1946, attended the Royal Agricultural College and returned to South Africa in 1947. A devout Mormon, he moved to Britain in 1957 to farm. Fellow pilot PHV Wells described him as having “taken to religion in a big way” though certainly not the only wartime pilot to become religious.