Globetrotting Army officer honoured for life-saving work in Africa

Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Jedge Lewin, from Borehamwood, has had a unique career in the British Army, as the army's only commissioned cavalry medical officer.

Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Lewin has served alongside the armoured reconnaissance units on operations in Iraq, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and Bosnia to name just a few, as well as on military exercise in locations like Kenya, Canada, South Africa, and Australia.

But it is his time in South Sudan, for which he was recently awarded an OBE for his work, that Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Lewin has found the most extreme and difficult.

In January 2020, the 52-year-old arrived in South Sudan arrived as the deputy force medical advisor for the UN mission charged with bringing stability to the world’s newest nation as it pulls itself out of the turmoil of civil war.

But his superior didn’t arrive for four months, so Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Lewin had to step up, working as the primary medical advisor for a military force of 17,000.

Lieutenant Colonel Jedge Lewin at the Officers' Mess in Juba, South Sudan

Within two weeks, the officer was facing the threat of both terrorism and Covid-19, and soon he was leading protocols for more than 30,000 people, responsible for running and administering five military hospitals for troops from India, Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, as well as 30 medical facilities around the rest of South Sudan.

Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Lewin said: "Covid completely changed everything. The impact on patient and casualty movement became life threateningly difficult and our ability to do what we had been sent to do – to protect civilians - was increasingly challenged.

"PPE and oxygen supplies were significant concerns throughout as was the number of intensive care beds and ventilators. Our hospitals hadn’t been designed to deal with a threat of this nature and with the borders closed, getting supplies was a major hurdle.

"I had to redesign the hospitals but was working with very small teams. Thankfully the measures I put in place worked and our numbers remained relatively low, but it was brutal."

Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Lewin claims that the experience was even more difficult than his time in Afghanistan where he faced the real prospect of being killed.

He said: "It was far harder than anything I've faced. In Afghanistan, for example, my family were worrying about me and whether I’d make it home alive; now I was worrying about my elderly mother Ann, and my brothers Guy and Nick, in UK both of whom fell into the vulnerable category.

"From where I was in South Sudan, my family were the ones in greatest danger suddenly, and it was a terribly worrying time."

Medical Team Lieutenant Colonel Jedge Lewin, Captain Fassinou, Lieutenant Colonel Yasmin Bhatti, Lieutenant Colonel Riffat, Major Nkeramihigo, Major Gyamera

The medical officer's work in South Sudan has not gone unnoticed, with him being awarded an OBE in the Operational Honours list this week.

Reflecting on his award, he said: "There were six of us from the UK that stayed for nine months to help the UN in South Sudan and they were all outstanding.

"The thing that struck me throughout was the quality of the teamwork there. I’m still in touch with so many people I worked with who all came from so many different countries, and can honestly say I made friends for life. They were a joy to work with, such wonderful, brilliant, talented people, who all pulled together in the midst of a crisis to help.

"I was working way outside my comfort zone but I hope I helped in some way to reduce the impact of the disease on the mission and enable them to carry out their lifesaving work for the country."

Lieutenant Colonel Jedge Lewin at the finish line for NORCON march

Surgeon Lieutenant Colonel Lewin's longevity in the same cavalry unit has meant that he has been awarded 14 medals, making his "rack" the longest in the regiment.

He added: "I’m hugely grateful to my family, especially my wife Sandy and children Millie, 18, and Ben, 16, for allowing me to have this life. I couldn’t have done, or do what I do, without their support."