About Alun Lewis
Alun Lewis (July 1, 1915 in Cwmaman near Aberdare, Glamorganshire - March 5, 1944 in Chittagong) was a Welsh poet and writer. After attending Cowbridge Grammar School, he studied history and English at the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth and at Manchester University. From 1938 to 1940 he worked as a teacher. From 1940 he did his military service in England during the Second World War. From 1942 he was deployed in India and Burma where he died in Chittagong.His first published book was the poetry collection Raider's Dawn and other poems (1942), which was followed by a volume of short stories, The Last Inspection (1942). His second book of poems, Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets - Poems in Transit, was published in 1945, and his Letters from India in 1946. Several collections of his poems, letters and stories have been published subsequently. In 1944 he received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for The Last Inspection.
Lewis died on 5 March 1944 during the Burma campaign against the Imperial Japanese Army. He was found shot in the head, after shaving and washing, near the officers' latrines, with his revolver in his hand. He is buried at Taukkyan War Cemetery.
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