Lawrence Reddrop Lewis

Thiepval Memorial, Belgium.

Lawrence (Reddrop) Lewis

Captain 

11th Battalion, South Wales Borderers.

Killed in action in France 11 July 1916. Age 34.

Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Belgium. Pier & Face 4A France.

Buried in Warrington Cemetery.

.

Born in Edmonton, Middlesex on 21 July 1881 (christened on 28 September 1881 in St Oswald’s Church, Malpas)

Fifth son of the Joseph and  Louisa Lewis of Crouch Hill House, Hornsey, Middlesex.

Brother of Percy Lewis, of Coventry House, South Place, Finsbury, London.

The 1911 Census shows Lawrence as a solicitor.

He applied on 18th November 1902 to be admitted into the Freedom of London in the Company of Saddlers (after his Father)

.

Laurence's father Joseph, had a country house and estates in the Malpas area (Ebnal at the time of Laurence's baptism, and The Beeches in 1887, prior to his own death in 1889.)

Joseph Lewis was a "generous benefactor" in Malpas, funding the building of the Jubilee Hall, presenting a carved oak pulpit to St Oswald's Church in 1887, funding the rebuilding of the Alport School in the late 1880's and building cottages at the Oathills for the "less wealthy" of Malpas.

Joseph, is honoured for his generosity to the village in a plaque inside the Jubilee Hall entrance.

.

Andrew Dawson, a Bickley farmer, has two letters to his grandfather relating to the death of a Mr. Lewis in the Battle of The Somme.

Lawrence Lewis became an early victim of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 when he was killed in action by high explosive shrapnel only minutes before his unit was due to be relieved.