Laura Tanna, Gleaner Writer

Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, Captain Tessa Lewin and General Liang Guanglie, chief of the general staff of the Chinese Liberation Army, in China, July 2005.

Today we give part two of a three-part interview feature on recently appointed commissioner of police, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin.

Buckfield was largely a coconut plantation, a thousand metres from the sea, off the main road of Ocho Rios, St Ann, when Admiral Hardley Lewin was growing up in the late '50s and '60s. His step father, Alderman Cover, served on cruise ships and Lewin's mother moved to Nassau, Bahamas for several years to be near her husband's home port there. Lewin remembers: "After two or three years, they would return to Jamaica, spend another several years and then get the call of the sea again. He would go off on another ship and she would be off again. That's how it went, back and forth, for several years."

His maternal grandfather, a carpenter and farmer, owned property in the area and young Lewin and his younger brother and sister were raised with aunts and uncles always around. His decision to enter the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) at age 17 years and five months grew out of his love for the sea, coupled with five years in the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force, while attending Ferncourt High School. It was in the cadets that Admiral Lewin met the current JDF chief of staff, Major General Stewart Saunders, with whom he became friends.

Life in the cadet force

Ironically, the Gun Court in Kingston now stands on what was once Cadet Headquarters where Cadets camped over the holidays. Originally, Lewin's inclination was to go to sea on merchant ships. He hoped to study in England, influenced by a British teacher who told of the London Polytechnic nautical courses, plus O' levels for 13 and 14-year-olds, but Lewin's mother felt they couldn't afford to send him away that early. By the time he finished the cadet force, he had developed a liking for things military and "the best combination of seagoing and military was to join the coastguard. That's how I ended up there," says the Admiral.

He enlisted in the JDF in 1971 and, in 1972, attended Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, England, and was granted a commission in the rank of Sub-Lieutenant when he completed his training in December 1972. By 1975, he qualified for seagoing command, eventually qualifying as Master (Home Trade), a commercial qualification. He says he took every opportunity to visit ships working cargo to learn more about the cargo aspects of shipping, something he wouldn't learn in the coastguard. The year 1978 was a difficult time in the force - this was the year of the Green Bay incident - and Lewin applied for study leave, still lured by the option of merchant shipping. Leave was not granted.

Telling what his worst encounter was during the '70s in his military work, Lewin says: "Wow, I wish I'd had some warning. I don't think there was a personal encounter, but there's part of our history, of the JDF - many national institutions came under great stress in the '70s."

Green bay issues

He adds, "It is to our credit that we somehow still maintained our basic ethos, which is not to say that we never came under great stress from the effects of the Cold War and all the other things that were playing themselves out in the streets. And lingering issues during the '70s of Green Bay are always there. It is something we will never get rid of."

Lewin never experienced the worst of the 1980 election violence, since his coastguard ship was outfitted and overhauled in Jacksonville, Florida, from August 1980 until March 1981. That year he fulfilled his obligations to the JDF and thought he was leaving forever. He served on two merchant ships as chief mate. Yet, within a year, he returned to the military as a result of internal soul-searching to determine what he really wanted to accomplish with his life.

"It is a philosophical argument I had with myself way out at sea one night. We were going from Miami to Venezuela. I was the chief mate on a ship called the Andairon, a break bulk container ship. I appeared at the Pearly Gates and St Peter said, young Lewin, what have you done in your earthly life to merit entry into the Kingdom?'," he recalls.

"I said, 'Well, I was a good lad. I obeyed the laws.'

'Yes, but where have you made your mark?'

'Well, I was a good lad and so on.'

'No, where have you left an indelible mark down there in your earthly life? Where is it? Let's see that.'

"I figured that wasn't going to happen out there, so I said let me get back quickly before I lose any more seniority."

Lewin realised that night at sea that, in committing himself to defending his country, to law enforcement, he was doing something positive.

Love for the army

"Sure, I love what I do. You don't come to the military because you want a job. It really must be a calling. I mean there's nothing wrong with a man who comes in, does his first engagement and leaves. We need all sorts. But if you come in there for a job you won't last very long unless something happens during that service that calls you to change your position. It has to be a calling. There is the business about service to country, wanting to make something better. Wanting to make a tangible contribution."

Recommissioned into the JDF Coast Guard in 1982, over the years he commanded each of the Coast Guard vessels and, having found his life's work, Lewin also found his life's partner. He met Tessa Diane Reid, from St James, briefly in 1975, when serving on a ship captained by John McFarlane, whose wife is a cousin of Tessa's. When Lewin returned to the JDF, he again met Tessa who had joined the service, eventually rising to the rank of Captain before leaving the JDF. They married in 1986 and have two children, Marcq St Hilaire, named after the man who developed the navigational system, and a daughter, Louise Indira. Louise, after Hardley's mother, and Indira, for Indira Gandhi's strength. Marcq has followed in his father's footsteps, attending naval college at Dartmouth, England, while Louise attends high school in Jamaica. Of his marriage with Captain Lewin, the commissioner says that both being in the military didn't necessarily bring them closer.

"It really comes down to the two individuals. In our case there's no question about what's hers and what's mine. It's ours. That's the basis on which we operate. Everything we have is joint, everything!"

Of the commissioner's overseas training, one experience in parti-cular broadened his understanding of the sea, which he calls "a fascinating medium that gives pleasure or causes great agony if you don't respect it. A great tool for just living, commerce, and so on, just fascinating!" A summer programme at the International Ocean Institute of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, afforded him the opportunity to study geology, oceanography, monitoring control and enforcement, and aspects of business and government involvement in what goes into ocean resource management.

Environmentalists will be glad to know that we now have a police commissioner who is aware of the need for environmental protection!

Indeed people may wonder what kind of street smarts a sailor can have when it comes to fighting crime. Commissioner Lewin points out that, "after 36 years in the military, you must have grasped a whole heck of a lot of things".

Commanded other grounds

He says, "Apart from that, I was the commanding officer of the Caribbean peace-keeping forces in Grenada and spent over six months commanding essentially troops. I went in December 1984, right after elections were held. Mr. (Herbert) Blaize had become prime minister. Political issues were settled and whilst there were some threats from the PRG (People's Revolutionary Government) elements, the government wanted a different approach. I think that is why I was chosen, to keep security in place, but at the same time don't be gung ho about it."

Remembering other experiences overseas, 21 years later as head of the JDF, Admiral Lewin had the privilege of visiting The People's Republic of China. where his host was General Liang Guanglie, chief of the general staff of the Chinese Liberation Army - in other words, the head of the army of a country with more than a billion people. What impressed him most was not only the rate of construction in China but, he says, "My hosts were at great pains, everywhere I went, to point out that what we're seeing is not the whole China. They said they have problems in the middle and the west. They went to great pains to say, 'Look, we're not a very wealthy country.' I found that very striking that they would reiterate that point several times."

He adds, "As hosts you couldn't beat the way they took care of you!"

Another high point in representing Jamaica abroad was being asked to do the Queen's review in 2006 at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell, in the United Kingdom. Normally the Queen, a member of the Royal family, or someone designated by Buckingham Palace, is asked to be the reviewing officer. So it was a great honour for Admiral Lewin.

Next: His views on crime.

Hardley Lewin using a nautical sextant at sea in 1979. - Contributed photos

Tessa Diane Reid and Hardley Lewin on their wedding day, February 22, 1986. - contributed