Flight Lieutenant W J Lewis, DFC An ex-student of whom we are all very proud, is Wilfred Lewis, or Mike, as he is known to all his friends.  Mike was recommended for the DFC last
September and notified in October he would receive it. Being very modest, Mike has very little to say about the reason he won the award except that it was for a job over Antwerp.Excerpts from a letter which Mike sent home after he had been awarded the DFC read as follows: "I have received my DFC from the King. He and the Queen came here a week ago yesterday (January 27) and presented some decorations. I was presented to him in the mess for they stayed to lunch. I was talking to the King for about 15 to 20 minutes. He is grand and the Queen is so beautiful. They are a wonderful couple." Farther on in the letter Mike says: "I don't write very often now as we are very busy getting ready for operations. It's funny that when I said I was on a new bomber, you wrote and asked if it was the Manchester. It is the Manchester, but it's funny that you hear of it in the papers there, for it is still on the secret list or at least it is not in the British papers." To Mike in the RAF and his brother George (Pat) in the RCAF go the best wishes of all the students and ex-students of Port Hope High. Keep up the good work and God Bless you both. Bombardier Tom Warburton "Two other Port Hope boys came on the boat with me, Eric Newman-Jones and John Snider. Some day I hope to come across them again... I have seen Ken Grace, Jack Bruce and Jack Westaway. Capt Foote is about 12 miles from here. I'll find him someday too, I hope. England is a lovely country (the spirit of the people is such that it cannot be broken). Even in Winter it is pretty and as Spring approaches it becomes more beautiful. The English have something which is really worth fighting for. I only wish every Canadian could put as much into the war effort as the people here are doing." Captain Philip Ryan writes: "As for the interesting events, I can't describe them in full, but I can say that we were in a long distance troop movement. As a result I feel that the Canadian Army is a good fighting machine and also that we can travel just as fast as the Australians in Egypt. We can really get around rapidly and will be able to take good care of ourselves and give a good account of ourselves as well. I can tell you that there were 20,000 Canadians doing a defensive manoeuvre against supposed invaders. Little did I realize just what 20,000 soldiers and supplies really meant till I saw them in action." (This information has previously appeared in the British Press) Excerpt from Pte Roy Haines' letter from somewhere in England "One of the world's finest cellists lives only a half mile from the castle where we live. He gives recitals every Sunday afternoon for his friends and admirers. He's a famous composer of Violin-cello work too, I understand." "I have been singing within the last month, but not to any great extent. I wish I had someone to play for me. I have no music either. Everything has to be entirely impromptu. I have taken a great deal of interest in chants (Georgian and plain song). My Parish church has a magnificent choir and they do a great deal of singing in Georgian." |