Gwilym Hugh Lewis

Wing Commander Gwilym Hugh Lewis (5 August 1897 – 18 December 1996) was a British flying ace during World War I. He was credited with 12 confirmed aerial victories. He went on to a very successful career as an insurance broker. Lewis was the next to last surviving British ace from the war, as well as the longest lived, dying eight months before his hundredth birthday. His wide range of friends included Prime Minister Winston Churchill, playwright Noël Coward, and fellow aces Stan Dallas, Mick Mannock, and George McElroy.

Early life and service Born in Moseley, Birmingham, in 1897 to Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Lewis, he was educated at Marlborough College. He volunteered for the Northamptonshire Regiment for service early in World War I. On 10 September 1915, having trained at the Officers' Training Corps at the University of London, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant; however, he was not entitled to pay and allowances until the following 3 January. His first try at transferring to the Royal Flying Corps was refused because they had no openings. Lewis then procured £100 from his father for tuition, and put himself through private pilot's training at Hendon on a Grahame-White Boxkite. The RFC then accepted him and sent him to the Central Flying School at Upavon. On 23 April 1916, he was appointed a flying officer. He would be one of the founding members of No. 32 Squadron RFC.

When 32 Squadron moved to France on 29 May 1916, Lewis flew a tired Airco DH.2 over the English Channel; he had four and a half hours solo flight experience.

Lewis was appointed a flight commander with the temporary rank of captain on 27 August 1917. He would not score again until late 1917, when he was assigned to 40 Squadron to train as a flight commander on Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5s. He began his training duties in September 1917. Lewis had earlier lost his elder brother in aerial combat.

Post World War I Lewis came home from the war to share a cottage in Wargrave with some of his service friends; they were Noël Coward's audience for his reading of his first play, The Rat Trap. Lewis began his career in insurance with Sedgwick and Collins, brokers with Lloyd's of London. He also wrote Wings Over the Somme 1916–1918, his memoir of his war experiences. At some point during this time, Lewis also served as the Recorder of Chesterfield. He traveled to the United States in 1923, surveying business conditions there. Upon his return, he recommended that Lloyd's form an American Non-Marine Department; the recommendation caused some hard feelings towards him from coworkers. This was also the year he married Christian Robertson, on 9 July; the union would last 68 years and produce two daughters and two sons. and was confirmed in his rank and promoted to flying officer on 14 August, only two weeks before the declaration of war. He served as a member of the Cabinet War Rooms reporting to and briefing Winston Churchill In the meantime, he had attempted to remain current with business affairs at Sedgwick, Collins. Lewis sold out Arbon Langrish to Clarkeson in 1965.