John Steel “Jock” Lewes

He forged the first SAS raiders in the harsh desert of WWII.

John Steel “Jock” Lewes grew up in Australia and studied at Christ Church, Oxford, where he led the university boat club. Commissioned in 1935, he joined the Tower Hamlets Rifles in September 1939 and transferred to the Welsh Guards later that year. He subsequently served with No. 8 Commando and Layforce in the Middle East, including at besieged Tobruk.

In 1941, Lewes and David Stirling helped shape L Detachment, the original Special Air Service. As its principal trainer, Lewes demanded physical endurance, desert navigation, parachuting and demolition skills. He devised the Lewes bomb, a portable explosive and incendiary charge designed to destroy aircraft and vehicles.

Lewes commanded 1 Troop during Operation Squatter, the first SAS parachute mission in November 1941. Severe weather wrecked the planned airfield attacks. In December, SAS patrols returned behind Axis lines with Long Range Desert Group support. Lewes took part in the Agheila operations, where planned aircraft attacks were frustrated but vehicles were destroyed, and led the Nofilia raid later that month.

On 30 December 1941, enemy aircraft attacked the withdrawing patrol. Lewes was fatally wounded and buried in the desert; the location of his grave remains unknown. He is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial. His training methods, raids and inventive weapon helped define the early SAS.