Reference code: GB99 KCLMA Lewis, RGA
Title: LEWIS, Maj Gen Sir Richard George Aylward (1895-1965)
Dates of creation of material: [1917]-1949
Level of description: file level
Extent: 0.02m3 or 2 boxes of papers
Born in 1895; educated at St Columba College and Trinity College, Dublin; temporary 2nd Lt 1914-1915; 2nd Lt, Leinster Regt; 1915; temporary Lt 1915-1916; served in World War One, in the Gallipoli campaign, 1915; served in Greek Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, European Turkey and the islands of the Aegean Sea, 1916-1917; Lt 1916; temporary Capt, Service Bn, 1917-1918; served with Egyptian Expeditionary Force, 1917-1918; served on Western Front in France and Belgium, 1918; acting Capt 1918-1919; Royal Tank Corps, 1922-1923; Lt, serving with East Lancashire Regt, 1922; Lt, Royal Tank Corps, 1923; Capt 1923; attendance at Staff College, Camberley, and Imperial Defence College, [1924-1927]; Bde Maj, Royal Tank Corps Centre, 1928-1932; Brevet Maj, Royal Tank Corps, 1932; General Staff Officer, Grade 2, Western Command, UK, 1934-1935; General Staff Officer Grade 2, War Office, 1935-1939; substantive Maj 1936; Brevet Lt Col 1937; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; served with General Staff, 1939-1942; acting Lt Col 1939; temporary Lt Col, 1939-1940; acting Col 1940; Col 1940; acting Brig 1940-1941; temporary Brig 1941; acting Maj Gen 1941; served with Allied Force Headquarters and held a senior role in planning and Allied liaison, 1942-1944; Maj Gen 1942; Deputy Quarter Master General, War Office, 1945; utilised his military administrative training to pursue a civilian career in senior administration after the end of World War Two; Deputy Director General for Finance and Administration, European Regional Office, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, 1945; Personal Representative of Director General of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Europe, 1947-1948; aide de camp to HM King George VI, 1948; Director General, Foreign Office Administration of African Territories, 1949-1952; died 1965.
Placed in the Centre by the family in three accessions in 1975 and 1977
The papers relate to Lewis's career and mainly cover the period 1927 to 1949. They reflect his interest in matters of administrative organisation. They include a set of typescript General Staff (Research) reports for the Department of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, on organisation and policy matters, 1938-1939; papers relating to Lewis's service with Allied Force Headquarters, 1942-1944, including a file of papers relating to Operation TORCH, the Anglo-American landings in North Africa, 1942, and a file of papers dealing with the wartime creation of a disposals organisation responsible for the disposal of surplus stores at the cessation of hostilities, 1941-1944, and papers relating to Lewis's senior administrative role with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, 1945-1948.
The papers have been arranged in approximately chronological order.
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.
English.