{{Short description|British officer, publishing editor, radio producer and military historian}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}} {{Use British English|date=January 2015}} '''George Ronald Lewin''' [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (11 October 1914 – 6 January 1984), later known as Ronald Lewin, was a British officer, publishing editor, radio producer and military historian.
==Education== Lewin attended [[University of Oxford]] at [[The Queen's College, Oxford|The Queens College]] on an academic scholarship in 1932, having earned both the Hastings Scholar award and the Goldsmiths’ Exhibitioner award in Classics and Divinity. While there he earned a [[double first]] in classical literature, history and philosophy.<ref name=Barnett>{{cite journal|last=Barnett|first=Correlli | author-link = Correlli Barnett |title=Ronald Lewin, Military Historian|journal=The RUSI Journal|date=1986|doi=10.1080/03071848608522739|volume=131|issue=4|pages=57–64}}</ref> His love of English literature endured throughout his life.<ref name=Barnett/>
==Career== Following his graduation in 1937, Lewin worked as an editorial assistant with the British publishing house of [[Jonathan Cape|Jonathan Cape Limited]].<ref name=Blair>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/12/obituaries/ronald-lewin-dies-historian-was-69.html|last=Blair|first=William|title=Ronald Lewin Dies; Historian was 69|date= January 12, 1984|access-date=May 16, 2016|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> With the start of the Second World War in 1939, he joined the [[British Army]] serving as an officer in the [[Royal Artillery]]. In North Africa he served under [[Bernard Montgomery|Montgomery]] and was wounded at [[Second Battle of El Alamein|El Alamein]]. He returned to his field post and served with distinction in North Africa and Europe until the close of the war.<ref name=Blair/>
Returning to England in 1946, he worked in the [[BBC Home Service]], initially as a producer. He was made chief of the BBC's domestic service in 1957 and remained at that position until his retirement from the BBC in 1965. In 1966 he returned to publishing and was made editor at [[Hutchinson Publishing]]. He served in that capacity until 1969.<ref name=Blair/>
==Military historian== Lewin did not begin writing books until the age of 54. He wrote ten books during his lifetime and was working on a one-volume history of World War II at the time of his death.<ref name=Barnett/> His best-known book was ''Ultra Goes to War'', an account written on the cipher breaking by which the Allies intercepted and broke the coded messages that the Germans transmitted by radio during World War II. His work on Ultra was the first to be based on official documents of the intelligence operation.<ref name=Barnett/>
Writing in a foreword to a book by Lewin, historian [[Max Hastings]] said "He quickly established a reputation as one of the major military writers of his generation." He went on to say "His biography of Slim was outstanding. His assessments of Churchill, Montgomery and Rommel at war are essential reading for students of the period."{{sfn|Lewin|1978|pp=11-12|loc=comments by Max Hastings provided in the book's foreword}} Lewin's biography of [[William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim|William Slim]], titled ''Slim the Standard-Bearer'', received the [[WH Smith Literary Award]].{{citation needed|date= September 2023}}
In his reassessment of Rommel, [[University of Salford]]'s Alaric Searle grouped Lewin's biography of Rommel with those of other former serving officers Desmond Young, [[Martin Blumenson]], [[Kenneth Macksey]], [[David Fraser (British Army officer)|David Fraser]] and several others, whose work he dismissed as "effusive and often uncritical". Searle asserted these works were part of a group of writings that created a [[Rommel legend]], a view that the Field Marshal was an apolitical, brilliant commander and a victim of the [[Third Reich]] due to his presumed participation in the [[20 July plot]] to kill [[Adolf Hitler]].{{sfn|Searle|2014|pp=7–8, 26}}
==Awards== Lewin was elected a fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]] in 1977 and of the [[Royal Historical Society]] in 1980. He was awarded the [[Chesney Gold Medal]] of the [[Royal United Services Institute]] in 1982.<ref name=Blair/>
==Bibliography== *''Rommel as Military Commander'' (1968), {{ISBN|9781844150403}} *''Montgomery as Military Commander'' (1971), {{ISBN|9780713412086}} *''The War on Land, 1939–1945: an anthology of personal experience'' (1969), {{ISBN|0090981707}} *''Churchill as Warlord'' (1973), {{ISBN|9780713412154}} *''Slim, the Standard Bearer: a biography of Field-Marshal the Viscount Slim'' (1976), {{ISBN|0850522188}} *''Man of Armour: a study of Lieut-General Vyvyan Pope and the development of armoured warfare'' (1976) {{ISBN|0-85052-050-9}} *''The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps: a biography'' (1977), {{ISBN|9780713406856}} *''[https://archive.org/details/ultragoeswar00rona Ultra Goes to War: the secret story]'' (1978), {{ISBN|9780091344207}} *''The Chief: Field Marshal Lord Wavell, Commander-in-Chief and Viceroy, 1939–1947'' (1980), {{ISBN|009142500X}} *''The Other Ultra: codes, ciphers, and the defeat of Japan'' (1982), {{ISBN|9780091474706}} (published in USA as ''The American Magic: codes, ciphers, and the defeat of Japan'') *''[https://archive.org/details/hitlersmistakes00lewi Hitler's Mistakes]'' (1984), {{ISBN|9780436245626}}
==References==
===Citations=== {{Reflist|30em}}
===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} * {{cite book | last=Lewin | first=Ronald | title=Ultra goes to war : the secret story | publisher=Hutchinson | publication-place=London | date=1978 | isbn=0-09-134420-4 | oclc=4808900}} * {{Cite ODNB|first=Philip|last=Ziegler|authorlink=Philip Ziegler|year=2011|origyear=2004|id=31357|title=Lewin, (George) Ronald}} *{{Cite journal |last=Major |first=Patrick |authorlink=Patrick Major |journal=German History |volume=26 |issue=4 |year=2008 |title='Our Friend Rommel': The Wehrmacht as 'Worthy Enemy' in Postwar British Popular Culture |doi=10.1093/gerhis/ghn049 |pages=520–535 }} * {{cite contribution |last=Searle |first=Alaric |contribution=Rommel and the rise of the Nazis |title=Rommel Reconsidered |editor=I. F. W. Beckett |location=Mechanicsburg, PA |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=2014 |isbn=9780811714624 }} * [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U166353 Lewin, (George) Ronald], ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 * [http://books.stonebooks.com/cgi-bin/foxweb.exe/base/author?lewin_ronald Page on ''Stone Books''] {{refend}}
==External links== * [https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1807 The Papers of Ronald Lewin] held at [[Churchill Archives Centre]]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewin, Ronald}} [[Category:British book editors]] [[Category:British military historians]] [[Category:British historians of World War II]] [[Category:People educated at Heath Grammar School]] [[Category:Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford]] [[Category:Royal Artillery officers]] [[Category:1914 births]] [[Category:1984 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century British historians]] [[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]