This page uses content from the Cecil Lewis biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Cecil Arthur Lewis (March 29, 1898 – January 27, 1997) was a British fighter pilot who flew in World War I. Author of the aviation classic Sagittarius Rising (inspiration for the movie Aces High), Lewis joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1915, after lying about his age. In 1916, he flew the Morane Parasol in combat and won the Military Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Somme. Flying the S.E.5a with 56 Squadron, he was credited with eight victories during May and June of 1917.

After World War I ended, Lewis was hired by the Vickers company to teach the Chinese how to fly and to establish a Peking-Shanghai air service using converted Vickers Vimy bombers. It was in Peking that Lewis married Douska Horvath, the daughter of a Russian general. Lewis returned to England when the air service project was abandoned by Vickers after a couple of years.

Lewis was one of the four young men who founded the BBC in 1922, where he was a writer, producer, and director. At the 1938 Academy Awards ceremony, Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Ian Dalrymple and W.P. Lipscomb received Oscars for their screen adaptation of Pygmalion. He served with the Royal Air Force during World War II, in Sicily, Greece, Egypt, and Italy.

During the late 1940s Lewis became enamored with the teachings of the Greek-Armenian mystic Gurdjieff. In 1947 he flew a Miles Gemini to South Africa, where he spent the next three years on a farm he established, but the farm was not a success, and in 1950 he returned to England. He joined the Daily Mail in 1956 as a reporter. After his retirement he moved to Corfu where he spent the rest of his life, continuing to write until well into his nineties.

Bibliography

Works by Lewis

• Sagittarius Rising (1936) ISBN 1853671436
• Challenge to the Night (1939)
• Pathfinders (1944)
• Yesterday's Evening (1946)
• Farewell to Wings (1964)
• Turn Right For Corfu (1972)
• Never Look Back; an Attempt at Autobiography (1974)
• Gemini to Joburg (1984)
• Sagittarius Surviving (1991)
• All My Yesterdays (1993)

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