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Auction: 23003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 183

A superb Third Battle of the Hook P.O.W.s group of five awarded to Private L. J. Lewington, Duke of Wellington's Regiment - late 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment - who was taken Prisoner-of-War at the Battle of Tebourba Gap and later saw Korean War service, being wounded and taken prisoner yet again at the Hook in May 1953, later losing a leg to gangrene whilst incarcerated

1939-45 Stars; Africa Star; War Medal 1939-45; Korea 1950-53 (22538730 Pte. L. J. Lewington. DWR.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, verdigris to third, overall good very fine (5)

Leslie Joseph Lewington was born at Chiswick, west London, on 23 July 1923. His father, a General Labourer, was Joseph Lewington and his mother Alice (nee Christian); after leaving school he worked as a 'Dart Board Printer' until called up to the 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment.

Landing in Algiers in November 1942 as part of the famous 78th Division, in Operation Torch he participated in the bitter battles of Longstop Hill and Tebourba. Notably, in the fighting at Tebourba the 1st Battalion East Surreys suffered severe losses and by 4 December the Battalion strength had been reduced by 60% to 23 Officers and 350 other ranks; amongst those initially classified as missing, and then confirmed as a P.O.W., was Lewington.

He was first moved to a camp in Italy and then, after the surrender of Italy, moved to Stalag 18A at Wolfsburg in Austria. After nearly three-and-a-half years in captivity, in 1945 he was liberated, returned to the U.K., and released from the Army. Lewington married Winifred Mary Byron and had two children, Linda and Paul, in the same year.

However, he was recalled to the Colours in 1950 and posted to the 1st Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment; in September 1952 he arrived in the Japanese port of Kure for advance battle drills where, in the book by Ken Keld 'Korean War Experience 1953', there is a description of Leslie Lewington's nocturnal adventures with a Japanese lady.

As a member of 'D' Company in May 1953 he was in the forward company which was overrun by the Chinese and he was badly wounded in the leg. Private Trevor Evans, of the same unit, was also wounded and made a P.O.W. A description of their fate features in the book by A. J. Barker 'Fortune Favours the Brave':

'Sixteen men who were taken prisoner during the action were released when the Armistice Pact was signed in July. Two who returned were Private Leslie Lewington and Private Trevor Evans. Both were badly wounded in the early stages of the attack, but it was ten days before they received any medical attention. Neither remembered much about the first few hours after their capture - except that they were ushered down Green Finger into one of the Chinese caves. Mercifully and miraculously they survived a nightmare stumble through the British barrage; later in the night they were tied down on bamboo litters and jogged across No Man's Land. Ten days jolting across country on stretchers or over rough tracks in the back of a horse-drawn cart elapsed before they came to a prison camp. And by this time both men's wounds were gangrenous. Lewington had a leg amputated, but Evans was more fortunate. Like their fellow prisoners both of them were assured that under the 'Volunteers' New Lenient Policy they would not be murdered, tortured or have their personal belongings taken.'

On his return to England, he had a further son, Leslie in 1960 and died in Ealing in 1998. His wife Alice also died in Ealing in 1999; sold together with copied casualty lists, an original Stalag XVIIIA tag and a copied photograph.

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Sold for
£480

Starting price
£190