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Allan Leonard LewisVC (28 February 1895 – 21 September 1918) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Lewis was born in Herefordshire, but moved to South Wales to find work. On the outbreak of the First World War he was employed by the Great Western Railway as a bus driver at Neath. he joined up in March 1915. The GWR has no record of Lewis on its Rolls of Honour or War memorials, and it may be that he joined up without the company's agreement, and thus lost his post and pension rights. By September 1918 he was 23 years old, and a lance-corporal in the 6th Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment, British Army during the same war when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
On 18 September 1918 at Rossnoy, near Lempire, France, Lance-Corporal Lewis was in command of a section on the right of the attacking line, held up by intense machine-gun fire. He saw that two guns were enfilading the line and crawled forward alone, successfully bombed the guns and by rifle fire made the whole team surrender. On 21 September he rushed his company through the enemy barrage, but was killed while getting his men under cover from heavy machine-gun fire.[1]
Lance-Corporal Lewis is remembered on the Vis-en-Artois memorial near Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery, Haucourt as he has no known grave.[2] The medal was handed to Lance-Corporal's Lewis's elder brother Frank by their mother. She made him promise that the medal would never be sold as she said that she lost a son, and she considered any profit from it would be blood money. Frank kept the medal in his home until his death. It was then agreed by the children of Frank that as he still had a brother, alive, he could hold the medal for his remaining days and then it was to be placed in a museum, either the regimental or local Hereford. When this brother died, the medal was assumed to be part of his estate and was kept by sole beneficiary of the will. Despite requests from Frank's close family, the medal was not returned and therefore not put into a museum.
On the centenary of Lewis' sacrifice a number of events took place to honour him.
On 18 September 2018 two plaques honouring Allan Lewis (one in English and one in Welsh) were unveiled at Neath Station, by his great niece, Dawn Lewis. The Railway Heritage Trust funded these plaques.
2018年9月21日、ルイスの没後ちょうど100周年に、ヘレフォードのオールド・マーケット・ショッピングセンターにルイスの銅像が建立された。この像はジェマ・ピアソンがデザインし、ヘレフォードシャー州総督であるダーンリー伯爵夫人によって除幕された。像の資金は、ドーン・ルイスが会長を務めるALルイスVC記念基金によって賄われた。像に加え、ヘレフォード大聖堂の聖母礼拝堂には、アランを記念する銘板が設置された。
ほぼ同時期に、現代のグレート・ウェスタン鉄道は、前身の会社が行わなかったにもかかわらず、新型のインターシティ・バイモード列車の1両にアラン・ルイスの名前を付けた。