Lewis Lyne

Major-General Lewis Owen Lyne, (21 August 1899 – 4 November 1970) was a British Army officer who served before and during the Second World War, rising from the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1939 to major-general in early 1944. His active service began in mid-1943 when in command of the 169th Brigade in action in North Africa and Italy from 1943 to 1944, followed by the 59th Division during the Battle of Normandy in mid-1944, finally commanding the 7th Armoured Division during the final stages of the Northwestern Europe Campaign until Victory in Europe Day in May 1945. He retired from the army in 1949.

Early life and military career

Born on 21 August 1899 in Newport, Wales, the second son of Charles Lyne, Lewis Lyne was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College. He graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant into the Lancashire Fusiliers on 2 April 1919. He gained a regular army commission on 24 July 1921. Posted to the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, he spent most of the interwar period serving with the battalion in various parts of the world, including Ireland, Egypt, Gibraltar and China. He was promoted to lieutenant on 14 July 1923.

Lyne returned to England to attend the Staff College, Camberley, from 1935 to 1936, where his fellow students included Eric Bols, Terence Airey, Joseph Charles Haydon, Geoffrey Bourne, Walter Lentaigne, Freddie de Guingand and Charles Keightley, along with both Henry Wells of the Australian Army and Rod Keller of the Canadian Army. While there, on 16 October 1935, he was promoted to captain.