Herschel Lewis Austin

Who was Herschel Lewis Austin?

Herschel Lewis Austin M.P.

Lewis Austin was a British furniture-maker and Labour Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1950. Austin was born in Plymouth, England, the son of Austrian immigrants, who later anglicised their surname from the Austrian "Ornstein".

Lew, as he was known, grew up in poverty in the East End of London. His father Mordechai, a bamboo worker, died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 44, when Lewis was aged just 3, in 1914.

After leaving school at the age of 11, he educated himself as much as he could by attending night classes and visiting libraries when he wasn't working as an apprentice cabinet maker. He owed much of his wide-ranging education to Toynbee Hall, a benevolent institution still active in the East End. He later went into business with his three of his brothers, producing affordable furniture with what became Austinsuite furnishings, a precursor to the flatpack furniture later adopted by M.F.I. in the U.K.

During World War II, the family business, F Austin Leyton Ltd, manufactured military aircraft including the de Havilland Mosquito. Lew Austin was production manager.