Cap given to Lord Lewin when he played for the Royal Navy as part of Interservices Rugby. The cap is of blue velvet edged with gold braid. The peak is embroidered in gold threadwork with the date 1946-7. The cap is also embroidered with the insignia for Royal Navy Rugby Union. At the top of the cap is a wood core button covered with silk. There is a long silk tassel attached to the button. The interior of the cap is lined with silk twill. 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 tri, 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))