Essington Lewis (1881-1961) was chief executive of Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd., Australia's largest steel company (1921-1950), director-general of munitions (1940-1945), and director-general of aircraft production (1942-1945). As the most powerful leader of Australia's newly emerging heavy industry after World War I, Lewis's career embraced some of the most important changes in 20th-century economic development in that country.

Essington Lewis was born on January 13, 1881, at Burra Burra, South Australia, the third son of John Lewis, a native-born livestock and pastoral station agent, and Martha Anne, nee Brook. His mother was an English-born daughter of a Bristol excise inspector whose widow migrated to South Australia with her children soon after her husband's early death. Essington Lewis was the third of six children and spent his childhood and adolescence in modest prosperity under a vigorous patriarchal regime. His primary education was undertaken at the government school at Burra Burra. At...