Christopher Lewis
West 1946-50
My eldest brother Christopher John Lewis was born in Bedford on 9 April 1932. He enjoyed his life in Bedford, but when we moved to Windermere in the summer of 1944 he believed he’d landed in heaven. There were mountains to climb, and mountaineering became an abiding passion for him.
The path to The Leys was laid by the influence of the Pattinson family (as in the teacher Alan Pattinson), one of whom was Chairman of the Governors at Windermere Grammar School where our father was the headmaster. Christopher started at The Leys at the age of 13. He used to travel from Windermere to Cambridge by rail, quite a daunting experience for a young boy. To my knowledge he never once complained about the journey, and from day one he took to life at The Leys with enthusiasm.
He was a clever chap and thrived academically, but he also took part in activities on the sports field and in the swimming pool. On leaving school Christopher undertook National Service and served as a Subaltern with the King’s Liverpool Regiment. He spent a good deal of his military career in the divided city of Berlin. It was useful that he spoke fluent German.
National Service was followed by three years at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages. On leaving Cambridge he joined the city firm of Hogg Robinson. However, after a relatively brief period working there Christopher chose to make a complete change of direction and decided that he would retrain as a geologist. In effect he had to go back to school, because he had to acquire a completely different set of qualifications, for example O and A levels in Chemistry and Physics. Initially he maintained himself by teaching at a prep school on the Ayrshire coast. He was close to the University of Glasgow where he studied the initial preliminary subjects; thereafter he transferred to Kingston College of Technology where he completed his degree.
An academic career beckoned, but the temptation of more lucrative work proved too attractive and Christopher joined BP. His career with BP took him to various parts of the world, and his expertise proved particularly valuable to that company when he was one of the team who were responsible for discovering the massive oilfield at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska. At that time grizzly bears were a hazard for him, and he must have been one of the few people who went to work by helicopter from John Wayne’s yacht, which was hired by BP, carrying a rifle over his shoulder.
Christopher was also active in church matters in his home county of Ross, California. For many years in his retirement he managed the extensive finances of the bishop’s ranch, a retreat and conference Centre near Healdsburg, and served on the board from 1996-2012. In retirement he took an active interest in oil and gas production, and my brothers and I used to joke about his encyclopaedic knowledge of every drop of oil and whiff of gas.
He was a kind and compassionate man who throughout his life was supported by his wife Peggy and his loving family, including daughter Heather, son-in-law Jonathan, son David and grandsons Jaxon and Simon.
Words by Anthony Lewis