Memorial planned for constable killed in 1936
A Sarnia police officer killed in a shootout with an infamous gangster nearly a century ago is finally being memorialized at the downtown site of his death. The Sarnia Historical Society is planning to dedicate a bronze plaque in memory of Const. John (Jack) Lewis. He was killed May 23, 1936 in a gun battle as police tried to stop Norman (Red) Ryan and an accomplice from robbing a downtown liquor store. Both robbers also died in the shootout.
The plaque is being erected at 140 Christina St., said the historical society ’s Phil Egan. It’ll be dedicated at 1 p.m. on Sept. 30. “It’s long overdue,” he said. Other than a memorial inside the Sarnia police station, there’s been nothing in Sarnia to mark Lewis’s memory for more than 80 years. The police station memorial is not accessible to the public.
“We actually for some time have thought it kind of a disgrace that the name Red Ryan was known in the town, but the name Jack Lewis had been forgotten,” Egan said. “We’ve been talking for years about eventually raising the money to do some kind of a public memorial.”
Hoping to fund the project, the society attempted to claim reward money that Ontario’s attorney general had offered in the 1930s for Ryan’s arrest — money obviously never claimed because he was shot to death by police. But the local group was rebuffed. After that snub was reported by The Sarnia Observer, community donations poured in to fill the void, Egan said.
Police officers from Sarnia and Port Huron, border guards and others are expected to attend the Sept. 30 event, along with 30 of Lewis’s family members, Egan said.
“His two children are passed away but there are nieces and nephews and grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said. Another anonymous $1,000 donation from a community member is helping pay for a reception for the family at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 62 on Front Street, Egan said, noting it’ll be open to others as well.
A religious service at Redeemer Lutheran Church marking Police and Peace Officers’ National Memorial Day, the last Sunday of September, has also been reinstated this year, Egan said, noting members of the public and police are invited to attend that 10 a.m. service.
“The Sarnia Historical Society will be speaking from the lectern at that service about Jack Lewis’s sacrifice,” he said. Delegates are fanning out at other churches across the city to do the same. Lewis’s family members are “ecstatic” about the dedication, Egan said: “We expect it’ll be a great day.”