Lieutenant John Steel 'Jock' Lewes died near 'Marble Arch' (El Gaus; Arco dei Fileni) in Libya during an SAS/Long Range Desert Group raid. He was reportedly hit in the thigh by a 20 mm cannon round while returning fire from attacking Italian and German aircraft.

John Steel Lewes joined the Welsh Guards.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, John Steel Lewes was briefly transferred to a Territorial Army unit, the 1st Battalion, Tower Hamlets Rifles, Rifle Brigade.

John Steel Lewes received his first commission to the British Army's General List as a university candidate while he was a student at Oxford.

John Steel 'Jock' Lewes was born in Calcutta, Bengal, British India. He would later become a British Army officer, renowned as the founding principal training officer of the Special Air Service (SAS) during the Second World War.