He was First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in the late 1970s and in that role he worked hard to secure a decent wage for servicemen and helped win them a 32% pay rise.

[3] He served with distinction being mentioned in despatches three times[4][5][6] and being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1942 for saving the lives of many fellow servicemen when the destroyer HMS Somali was hit by a torpedo.

[10] Lewin was given command of the destroyer HMS Corunna in October 1955[3] before joining HMY Britannia in April 1957 as the executive officer.

[3] Promoted to captain on 30 June 1958,[12] he went back to the Admiralty as Assistant Director of the Tactical Ship Requirements and Staff Duties Division in November 1958 and then, having been appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1959 New Year Honours,[13] he became Assistant Director of the Tactical and Weapons Policy Division in 1960.

[10] He went back to the Admiralty again as Director of Tactical and Weapons Policy in December 1963 and took command of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes in May 1966.

[18] As VCNS two of his most important projects were the approval of the Sea Harrier and the beginning of "group deployments," as the UK's far-flung naval forces had mostly disappeared.

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