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© Pentrich Historical Society 2000-2006

Updated Saturday, 28 January, 2006

Web site maintained by Helen Wilson &

<<Home  <<Site Map  <<Pentrich Records  <<Obituaries Index  >>Revd. Edward John Lewis

In Memory of Revd. Edward John Lewis (b.1915-d.2004)

Memorial & tribute to the life of Revd. Edward John Lewis, former vicar of Pentrich.

Revd. Lewis was the vicar of St. Matthew’s church at Pentrich 1956 to 1975; whilst

additionally serving the neighbouring parish church at Swanwick.

Many Thanks to Robert Lewis, information & photos supplied with his kind permission © 2005

Revd. Edward John Lewis, former vicar of Pentrich (in 1991)

Robert Lewis believes his father, the Reverend Edward John Lewis, certainly led a fascinating life, full of adventure & reward and although he was known as a quiet man; he enjoyed life & all that it offered. The following information has been extracted, by kind permission of his son Robert, and mostly comes from the Eulogy that he read at his father’s funeral & memorial service.

Early Years

Edward John Lewis was born in 1915 at 55 Kiln Lane, St. Helens, Lancashire. He was one of six children; including his brother Tom, who sadly died in 1918 (only six years old), and four sisters who all lived until old age. His parents were John Edward Lewis, who was the manager of a food distribution company in St. Helens ... and his mother, Alice Emma, worked as a schoolteacher in nearby Rainford. His parents, John & Alice, were married at Rainford church around 1898 and shortly afterwards took on the Post Office on North Road in St. Helens.

Education & Alice

After studying at Cowley School in St. Helens, Edward won a scholarship to Cambridge University in 1933 and then to Ridley Hall in 1936 where he was called upon to serve the Lord Almighty. During his time at college he was heavily involved with Christian mission work and ministering to youth. Some years later a friend suggested that he should look up a swimming blue from Oxford University, by the name of Alice Watt; who was living in Bebington (on the Wirral).  Subsequently a date was arranged & they hit it off immediately and over the months that followed, they enjoyed a shared interest and enjoyment in walking and cycling trips, and Edward proposed to Alice whilst they were away in Scotland, at Glen Prosen ... they were married on June 6th 1942 in St Mary’s Church, Broughty Ferry in Scotland & remained in Scotland for their adventurous hiking & walking honeymoon.

World War II

The war years were quite difficult for Edward & Alice, who suffered long periods apart. Edward joined the RNVR as a chaplain to a fleet of fifteen large Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs), which frequently ran gauntlet up the beaches to offload tanks; this brought them to the frontlines of the Normandy Invasion and were an easy target for enemy bombing. Edward returned to the Normandy Beaches twenty five times in LST 239 over four months, taking tanks and other vehicles on the outward trip and injured troops and POWs on the return. On one trip alone, they brought back 1300 German prisoners. It was a hard time for Edward, not knowing whether the next trip was to be his last one; especially as people were dying all around him but he continued to give support & solace to those who needed it, and Holy Communion to all faiths.

Robert recalls one amusing story ... “Dad had joined HMS LST Q2 (a sort of LST that had been converted into a floating administration block) When they arrived at Gibraltar the ship needed a refit and part of the refurbishment was to paint it. I think Dad said that he was party to plugging the ships PA system into a record player so everyone on board was provided with loud musical entertainment to the ‘top of the pops’ of the day.  Unfortunately what they didn’t know was that the Admiral was in residence and sent a message to the ship loosely translated as ‘Please turn that music off’ The offending music was Glen Miller’s, Moonlight Serenade. I mentioned to Dad the possibility of playing the music at his funeral. ‘Yes I’d like that’ he said.”

‘Churches seen from Crich Tower’ ; including the churches of Pentrich (Bottom left) ... Swanwick (Top left), Ripley church (Top right) and Ambergate (bottom right).

Life after the War

In 1942, Edward accepted his first posting and became the Vicar of St. Andrews church, in Brechin, Scotland ... and it was there that their children, Susan & Robert, were born. The family later moved to Copt Oak in Leicestershire and from there to Derbyshire where they settled for a long time at Swanwick & Pentrich; Revd Lewis also served at Great Longstone in the High Peak District of Derbyshire. After retirement in the late 1970’s, Edward & Alice moved back to their home town of Rainford (In Lancashire), where they were very happy. Revd. Lewis greatly enjoyed his retirement & spent a lot of time on walking expeditions with his wife & friends from the Rainford Probus group. They also enjoyed Alice’s ‘Oxford Girls’ reunion trips and Edward even went to a few reunions after his wife Alice passed away. 

Revd. Edward John Lewis with friends - Grace & her husband Revd. Esmond Smith

Vicar Esmond Smith of Ripley

Robert tells us that one of the most important people to his father, was the man he called ‘Vicar Smith’. Revd. Esmond Smith was the Vicar of Ripley in Derbyshire; whilst his father was the vicar at Swanwick & Pentrich. Esmond & his father shared the same sense of humour and Robert says that Revd Esmond Smith was a master at maximising Dad’s chuckle and they saw much fun particularly in grammatical errors such as spelling mistakes and wording which made nonsense of what was intended to be serious.  Examples of this were things like, as seen in a church parish magazine “The Vicar is on holiday - massages can be given to the church secretary”  and others like  “The Sixth Form will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the Church Hall on Friday at 7.00pm.  The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.”

Remembered Dearly

Those who knew Revd. Edward John Lewis .... would know he was a quiet man, who disliked noise, loud people, loud music anything that upset the stillness which generally surrounded him ... he was an academic, a prolific reader and deep thinker, was an avid learner who had great wisdom and understanding. He was not at all impetuous; always methodical, honest and had great integrity and was unbelievably charitable, generous and caring ... but most of all he was a spiritual man, a man of God whose life he tried his best to live by Christian principles ... he will be remembered dearly and missed greatly by all those who knew & loved him.