Sir Edward Roberts Lewis (19 April 1900 – 29 January 1980) was an English businessman, best known for leading the Decca recording and technology group for five decades from 1929.

[1] After leaving Cambridge, Lewis worked in the financial sector, joining the London Stock Exchange.

Lewis secured new artists for the label, including Gertrude Lawrence and Jack Hylton, and Decca took over the UK manufacture and distribution of the American Brunswick Records, which brought leading popular American artists, such as Bing Crosby and Al Jolson, to the Decca group.

[1] When World War II broke out in 1939, Lewis sold his interest in Decca's American subsidiary.

[3] At the end of the war, Lewis authorised the expansion of Decca's classical programme to make it international, with recordings in Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Geneva, Bayreuth and Vienna.

The producer John Culshaw wrote, "Within five years of the end of the war Decca was well and truly in the big league.

His choice of Culshaw, the pioneering engineer Arthur Haddy, and the international manager Maurice Rosengarten were crucial to Decca's success.

[2] Lewis kept Decca ahead of the British competition by launching the long-playing record in Europe in June 1950, following the example of American Columbia, and encouraging the development of stereophony as early as 1954.

[3] In the early 1960s, Decca rejected The Beatles at an audition, but did sign The Rolling Stones and other successful groups.

[3] On the classical side, Lewis took the risk of backing Culshaw's hugely expensive plan to make a high-quality studio recording of Wagner's Ring cycle which, to the amazement and envy of Decca's rivals, proved to be a best-seller.

"[n 1] In his memoirs, John Culshaw recorded the missed opportunities of Lewis's later years, when his entrepreneurial flair and his instincts for the market had been overtaken by a cautious conservatism.