Owen Joshua Lewsey MBE (born 30 November 1976) is an English former rugby union player who represented England and the British and Irish Lions. Lewsey is a former British Army Officer. Background and early life Lewsey was born in Bromley, London to Welsh parents, but spent most of his childhood in the rural Hertfordshire village of Sarratt and spent his early years at Sarratt Church of England primary school. He subsequently attended Watford Grammar School for Boys and then attended the University of Bristol on a British Army bursary, graduating in 1998, and lived in the same hall of residence as three-time Olympian sailor Iain Percy; he was able to graduate after obtaining special permission to take his final exams in Australia as he had been selected for England's 1998 "Tour of Hell" in the Southern Hemisphere. In 2009 he was awarded a Doctor of Laws (LL.D) honoris causa by the university. Military Lewsey graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2001 and was commissioned as a troop commander into the Royal Artillery. However, after two years of combining the Army and a professional rugby career, he found that doing both became impossible, and he resigned his commission. Rugby career While at school he played for the Amersham and Chiltern Rugby Football Club and also Fullerians RFC as a pupil of Watford Grammar Boys’ Grammar School. He first played for Wasps at eighteen in their Colts side, before being selected for their senior team. In that season he made his first appearance for England, in the U19s against Italy. During his time at university, Lewsey combined his studies with playing professionally for Bristol RFC. He then rejoined London Wasps at the age of twenty one after completing his degree. He won his first full England caps in 1998 against New Zealand and then South Africa. In the following years, he was a member of the successful Wasps side that won 12 trophies, starting with the Tetley's Bitter Cup in 1999, in the final of which he scored a try. The following year Wasps retained the cup, and in the 2000 final he again scored a try this time against Northampton, having spent the morning at Sandhurst with his platoon on routine room inspection, block cleaning and parade drill. Amongst his 12 trophies at Wasps were four Premiership titles in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008. Lewsey played in all four