Alun Lewis (1 July 1915 – 5 March 1944) was a Welsh poet, short story writer, teacher and soldier. Born in Cwmaman, he won scholarships to Cowbridge Grammar School, University College Aberystwyth and the University of Manchester, before teaching in Wales. Despite early pacifist leanings, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers in 1940, later commissioning into the South Wales Borderers. His only volume published in his lifetime, Raiders’ Dawn and Other Poems (1942), alongside The Last Inspection (1942), struck a chord for their haunting realism. Posted to India and Burma, he was killed during active service in Burma in March 1944; an inquiry deemed his fatal gunshot an accident. His posthumous works including Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets and Letters from India, cemented his reputation as one of the finest World War II poets in English.