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Auction: 23113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 560

The 1968 C.B. awarded to Mr H. J. W. Lewis, Chief Architect, Ministry of Housing and Local Government in London from 1964-71

During the Second World War he was as a technician and designer for the aircraft makers Short Brothers at Rochester

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, C.B. (Civil) Companion's neck Badge, silver-gilt, good very fine, with neck riband and in its Collingwood, London, case of issue

C.B. London Gazette 8 June 1968.

Herbert John Whitfield Lewis was born on 9 April 1911. The best biography is offered by The Guardian:

'Lewis arrived at the London County Council with a solid modernist pedigree. Chepstow-born, he went to Monmouth school in south-east Wales before moving to Cardiff to train at the Welsh School of Architecture. In 1932, he moved to London to work first with Joseph Emberton, followed by Sydney Trent, designer of the Gaumont cinemas. His initiation into the avant garde came when he transferred to the office of Mendelsohn and Chermayeff. There his jobs included the Gilbey offices at Camden Town, and Chermayeff's own timber house at Halland, Sussex. In the run-up to war, Lewis worked with Norman and Dawbarn, specialists in buildings for the aviation industry. He spent the Second World War as a technician and designer for the aircraft makers Short Brothers at Rochester, then returned to Norman and Dawbarn to spearhead their diversification into public housing. Their St Pancras Way estate (again in Camden) opened in 1948: largely Lewis's design, it won awards and became his springboard into the London County Council where he remained for many years.

His last full-time job was as chief architect to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, later the Department of the Environment (1964-71), for which he was richly rewarded with the C.B. Lewis died in March 2010.'

Sold together with the original award parchment for his C.B.


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Sold for
£350

Starting price
£220