Rugby shirt worn by Lord Lewin in 1948. Blue knit cotton with Royal Navy Rugby Union insignia and the date 1948 embroidered on the shirt in white cotton thread. White collar, white plastic buttons. On the reverse is Lewins number 14 in appliqued cotton plain weave fabric.

Lord Lewin was a keen rugby player, particularly throughout his school days and early career in the Navy. Interservices Rugby matches began in 1878 with an Army vs. Navy game. During the Second World War, games were played at home and overseas by both Union and League players from all three Services. Matches took place as far a field as Singapore, Kuala Lumpar, Cario, India and Burma. There is also a record of rugby being played in prisoner-of-war camps in Europe.
Lewin distinguished himself in games against the Army in what was described as the “iron-hard pitch” in Malta, and against RAF on a snow covered pitch where, although he made a try, he always had the sneaking suspicion that he did not quite “get the ball over the line” as it was impossible to tell in the snow. He also records that rugby was a key pastime on Christmas day near the end of the Second World War as it “prevented anyone from getting too drunk.” (All quotes taken from Richard Hill, Lewin of Greenwich: the authorised biography of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin (London: Cassell, 2000))

Both during and immediately after the Second World War, the Interservices Rugby teams played to a very high standard and competition for a position on the teams was fierce. Lewin wore this Rugby shirt in 1948 when he got his second cap for the Navy.

It is a valuable object that provides insight into social life in the navy, commaraderie between branches of the armed forces, and the way in which British cultural pastimes were exported.