Lewis joined the merchant navy as a cabin boy at the age of 14 years old.
He joined his first ship the Gardenia in 1939; he then served on the MV San Amado during 1940. In 1941 he joined the SS Lustrous as assistant steward.
On 22nd February 1941 Lustrous was one of the ships sunk by Scharnhorst during Operation Berlin. Lewis and the other members of his crew were picked up by the Scharnhorst under the watchful eye of a German propaganda team onboard at the time. A short newsreel film was made of the sinking of the Lustrous and subsequent capture of its crew. Many photos exist of the events that day as stills were made available to the Scharnhorst crew members for their personal photo albums.

Lewis spent a short time below decks on Scharnhorst before being transferred to the German supply tanker Ermland, which then transported the many prisoners taken during Operation Berlin on to France.
After arriving in France, the prisoners were then transferred by train to Sandbostel Concentration Camp -Stalag XB.
Following protests by the International Red Cross the P.O.W`s were eventually moved out to the concentration camp to the new Marlag - Milag camp at Westertimke.
Here Lewis remained until the camp was liberated in 1945.
He left the camp on May 3rd 1945, spent a few days in Brussels then flew back to England in a Lancaster bomber on May 7th.

After the war, Lewis went back to sea with the merchant navy.
He ` jumped ship ` in Australia in the late 1940`s, ending up working as a miner in gold mines around Darwin and Alice Springs.
Returning to England in 1956 he later worked again as a miner this time in Canada. Giving up travelling in 1960 he returned to England and got married.
He worked as a process worker in a factory in the North East of England until he retired in the late 1980`s.

Lewis suffered a number of strokes during the late 1990`s, he died in September 2004 aged 79 years.

The Lustrous being shelled

This photo shows Lewis speaking with the Captain of the Scharnhorst. The Captain was asking him how old he was.

Lewis (on the left) with John Hipkin. John was also on the Lustrous and worked for Lewis. He was 14 in 1941! John Hipkin is considered to be the youngest British POW of WWII. In 2006, the BBC aired a program "The Cabin Boys" that features John Brantom, another of the the Lustrous cabin boys. Nat Bocking the author sent me a link to the text of the program.

This photo was taken on the Scharnhorst -John Hipkin is in the backgroung with his hand over his mouth.

This photo was also in Tommy;s Log

Tommy is the man on the left, Lewis is standing behind him.