Navy Foundation message routinely said, “Deeply regret to inform the demise of Commodore Roland Derek Lewin…” For those of us who knew him well, it was sad and disturbing though ‘Rolly’ as he was popularly known, had been keeping unwell for five years and more since he suffered a stroke.
Rolly was a year senior to me being from 12th NDA Course to my 14th. Since we were from different squadrons, I didn’t know him then. Our acquaintance came about when we were posted as Divisional Officers in the NDA in 1964-65. Rolly had just got married and I was a bachelor but the naval community was small and close and we stuck together at social functions and wherever else.
I really got to know him well when we became shipmates on Trishul in 67-68. We had just completed our respective specialisations and Rolly was appointed as the Navigation Officer and I as the Communications Officer of the frigate Trishul. We spent most of the day together on the ship’s bridge and got along with each other splendidly. Rolly had a good appetite and the Wardroom steward was instructed to bring cheese and ham sandwiches and cocktail sausages with coffee up to the bridge every hour. I am a vegetarian but have to confess that Rolly corrupted me to savour chopped ham and a piece of sausage now and then!
With Bunny Suri followed by Jayanto Roy Chowdhry as the Gunner and Gulu Kumar the Torpedo and Anti-Submarine expert, we combined to form a well-knit, proficient operational team which never let the ship or the Captain down.
Rolly and I shared a love for music and in spare time, had songs like “Hey Jude” and “Black Is Black” blasting at full volume. Staid people like the Electrical Officer and President Wardroom Committee, opted to stay out of the Wardroom and have meals in their cabins at least one deck away!
Following Trishul, Rolly and I were together at Cochin in ND and Signal Schools respectively as Chief Instructors. For exercises, we were often called upon to assist CO Venduruthy on his operational staff. I have elsewhere described how an exercise went hilariously wrong. Briefly, two units of the Cochin force which were to rendezvous in a position designated as RR (Romeo Romeo), could never meet throughout the exercise due to an encoding error in transmitting the RR coordinates. This resulted in the Bombay fleet carrying out their task of attacking Cochin successfully with the defending ships wasting their time desperately searching for Romeo Romeo. The morning after the debrief where the mystery of the elusive RR was solved, Commodore Malia, CO Venduruthy, Rolly and I were at a Basketball match. Cmde Malia came to the two of us and said, “You know, the rendezvous incident reminded me of Shakespeare’s play ‘Julius Kaiser’ where Juliet goes around searching for her lover muttering ‘Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’” All of us burst out laughing for a long time. Later, we discovered that Cmde Malia was an MA in English, so his remarks were probably not out of ignorance but deliberate to make us laugh.
After Cochin, we went our separate ways but were again brought together for about a month on the team at NHQ looking into the Mysore mutiny. I was married by then and we were put up in Kotah House along with the Lewins. That allowed Akhila and Marcia to spend time with and get to know each other.
There would be a long gap before we could meet again. I was on the East Coast while Rolly was more on the West. Then I went to Singapore and our next and last meeting was in March 1988 when I came on leave to Delhi. Rolly was Director Naval Operations (DNO). I visited him in his office in the War Room sitting with his feet on the table without shoes and with stockings rolled down. I asked him what if the Deputy Chief or some other senior officer walked in. Rolly said, “When they superseded me, I declared that I would put my feet on the table and that is just what I am doing.” We talked about the good old days for a while before I came away,
Soon after, both of us retired and he settled down in Bangalore and I in Delhi. In 2017, Akhila and I went to Coorg and spent a couple of days in Bangalore. I spoke on phone to Rolly who sounded low and told me he was not keeping well as he had recently had a stroke. Time and space did not permit me to visit him. Now I wish I had walked that extra mile.
Looking at Rolly’s appointments, I see that he commanded two frontline ships, Sindhudurg and Udaygiri, he was Fleet Operations Officer Western Fleet, DNO, Chief Instructor (Navy) at Staff College, Wellington, and had graduated from the National Defence College, New Delhi. So why was he overlooked for flag rank? Unfortunately, Navy does not provide answers.
Rolly was an intelligent, honest, bold and upright officer. Wish there were more like him.
:-(
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