Swansea Connections with Victoria Cross Winners 3

The third man with a connection with Swansea to have been awarded a Victoria Cross, is Allan Leonard Lewis. His connection is that he enlisted at Swansea.

Lewis was born February 1895, Whitney-on-Wye, Herefordshire. Before the outbreak of the First World War, 1914, he was living in Neath, where he became an adopted Welsh man. He worked on the buses, as conductor and then bus driver, on the route to Pontardawe.

By March 1915, though it states that he joined the army at Neath, with my research I have found he enlisted at Swansea with the Northamptonshire Regiment, 6th Battalion.

18th September 1918, Lewis now Lance Corporal, Rossnoy, France. Lewis was in command of a section, were held up by intense fire. Successfully he crawled alone underfire, bombing the guns, and with rifle fire made the teams surrender. Two day later on the 21st, he rushed his company through enemy barrage, where he was killed in the act.

18th September 1918, saw 38 men from the 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment killed and 22 killed on the 21st.

Like with Prowse, his body was not recovered and he also is commemorated at the Vis-en-Artois Memorial.

Lewis was awarded the VC for his actions on the 18th, posthumously to his mother. The family still own the VC, to this day.