Lewis Yelland Andrews

Lewis Yelland Andrews (26 September 1896 – 26 September 1937) was an Australian-born British colonial official who served as the District Commissioner (governor) of the Galilee during the British Mandate for Palestine. A fervent supporter of Zionism and Jewish settlement, he was widely regarded by the Yishuv as a true friend of the Jewish people. He was assassinated by Arab militants, followers of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, on his 41st birthday in 1937, during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Mandatory Palestine.

Biography

Lewis Yelland Andrews was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1896, to a family of Scottish descent.

In November 1914, during World War I, he enlisted in the Australian Light Horse and served in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. He later joined the Camel Transport Corps in Egypt and Palestine. He reached the rank of captain and remained in Palestine after the war, serving in the British military administration that preceded the Mandate, and later in the Mandate government.

During the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, in May 1920, he assisted the defenders of Hadera against Arab attackers. Andrews, along with two Jewish policemen, visited nearby settlements to prepare them for defence, supplied arms and ammunition to Hadera, and requested air support from Haifa. In the 1929 Palestine riots, he rescued twenty Jewish families from Beisan and helped Jewish settlements in the Galilee and Jezreel Valley prepare against attacks.

Andrews held various administrative roles in the Mandate government, including district officer in the north, judge in the Haifa district court (1921–1922), acting District Commissioner for the Northern District on several occasions (1929–1932), Development Officer in the Mandate's Development Department, adviser to the High Commissioner, and Registrar of Cooperative Societies (1933–1936). He was also a member of committees on agricultural development and land taxation.

One of the few Mandate officials who took the Balfour Declaration seriously and actively supported the establishment of a Jewish national home, Andrews was a close friend of key Zionist leaders such as David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Yosef Weitz, Yehoshua Hankin, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. He learned Hebrew and Arabic to communicate directly with the Yishuv.

He testified before the Peel Commission, refuting Arab claims of mass dispossession of Arab tenants by Jewish land purchases. His evidence contributed significantly to the commission's 1937 recommendation to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, which enraged the Arab leadership.

In his official capacity, he facilitated the transfer of tens of thousands of dunams of land to Jewish ownership, supported the establishment of Tower and Stockade settlements, and helped found dozens of settlements in the Hula Valley, Beit She'an Valley, and Hefer Valley. He also prevented the British from blowing up Rachel's Tomb at the start of the Arab revolt.

In the summer of 1937, the British split the Northern District, creating a new Galilee District comprising the districts of Acre, Nazareth, Tiberias, and Beisan, with Andrews appointed as its commissioner. Arabs viewed this as a step toward partition and the inclusion of Galilee in a Jewish state.

Andrews enforced strong measures against Arab rebels, intensified police activity, and imposed collective fines on hostile villages. For a time, he restored calm to the Galilee and attended Jewish land settlement ceremonies as a guest.

On 26 September 1937, his 41st birthday, while serving as Galilee District Commissioner, Andrews attended evening prayer at the Anglican Christ Church in Nazareth. Four Arab gunmen ambushed him near the church, firing nine shots and killing him instantly. His bodyguard, police constable MacIan, was also wounded and later died. The assassins were followers of Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, who is still revered by some Palestinian groups today.

Andrews was buried in the Protestant cemetery near Bishop Gobat School on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth, a son, and two daughters.

Contemporary news reports

Contemporary press accounts described a massive British response following the assassination. According to reports of the day:

British troops and police rounded up 120 suspects in the Nazareth district in an intensive hunt for three Arab terrorists who assassinated Galilee District Commissioner Lewis Yelland Andrews and constable Peter Robertson McEwan, his bodyguard, as they were leaving the Anglican church in Nazareth. Police dogs were unable to pick up the trail of the slayers.

The authorities considered imposing a collective fine of $100,000 on the city of Nazareth, a measure used during the 1936 Arab revolt. A curfew invoked immediately after the killing remained in force. The bodies of the slain Britons were shipped to Jerusalem, where they were to receive military burial.

The leader of the three Arabs who fired at the British officers at close range was reported to be a mysterious figure known only as "Wolf," said to be the right-hand man of Fawzi el Kaukaji, chief of Arab guerrillas the previous year.

According to the Havas News Agency, several of those arrested were Arab notables. As British soldiers marched into Nazareth to maintain order and continue the search, W. D. Battershill, acting High Commissioner in Palestine, and other senior officials met in Jerusalem to discuss the situation.

Andrews was killed instantly, and McEwan died in hospital an hour later. Assistant district commissioner Pirie-Gordon survived by throwing himself to the ground after Andrews shouted, "Run for it, Pirie-Gordon, they've got us."

Authorities disclosed that Andrews had received numerous death threats because of his firm actions against terrorists during the previous year's rioting. Andrews, a 41-year-old Australian ex-serviceman, had been named commissioner during the 1936 disorders. He was survived by his widow, one son, and two daughters. D. G. Harris, formerly attached to the Royal Commission of Inquiry, was appointed to succeed him.

Context of the assassination

The assassination took place amid growing Nazi and fascist Italian encouragement of Arab opposition to Zionism and British policy in Palestine. After the Peel Commission's partition recommendation, German officials instructed their legations in the Middle East to oppose a Jewish state and support Arab unrest as a counterweight to "international Jewry". Pro-Nazi sentiments among the Arabs grew. The Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini visited German representatives in Jerusalem, and German diplomats in the region provided limited financial and military support to the Arab Higher Committee and rebels.

Aftermath of the assassination

The assassination caused outrage in the Yishuv and among the British, who viewed it as a breach of an unwritten agreement that Arab militants would not target British officials. Days later, the British outlawed the Arab Higher Committee, dissolved Arab national committees, removed the Mufti from the Supreme Muslim Council, and issued an arrest warrant for Haj Amin al-Husseini, who fled the country. The Mandate police arrested dozens in Arab villages in the Galilee and Samaria, and deported several leaders.

The assassination marked the first killing of a senior Mandate official by Arabs during the revolt and led to increased attacks on British personnel. It was seen as a turning point in the revolt.

In the Yishuv, mourning was widespread and heartfelt. Thousands lined the streets as Andrews' coffin passed from Nazareth to Jerusalem. Memorials were held, dances and performances were cancelled, and blue-and-white flags flew at half-mast alongside British flags. Leaders from across the Yishuv attended the funeral. The National Council declared that Andrews' name would be inscribed among those who sacrificed for the Jewish people.

The local council in Afula named the central square after him (later renamed Independence Square). In February 1938, a cornerstone was laid for a hospital in Netanya named after him, although it was never built. Streets in Netanya and Tel Aviv bear his name.

Testimony about Andrews

Chaya Erd, a member of Kibbutz Beit Zera, wrote about a performance at the kibbutz in 1937: "Two Arabs attended our play... Among the guests was the British District Commissioner of the Galilee – Lewis Andrews and his entourage. They played with our toddlers and talked with members... The man – Andrews – was a friend of Israel, and therefore was murdered the day after watching our play, on the steps of the church in Nazareth (there is a plaque in his memory). The Arab revolt, which had quieted for a year, flared up again that day – 26 September 1937."

See also

• Orde Charles Wingate

External links

• Excerpt from Howard M. Sachar, A History of Israel, pp. 210–211
• Find a Grave