Herman Le-Roy was born on 27 June 1860, the second son of Captain Robert Le Roy, an American army officer who died in 1865. His mother was Amelia Lewis, daughter of Philadelphia merchant and financier William David Lewis. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining a BA. Herman changed his name to Le Roy-Lewis in 1885 after inheriting from his uncle John Delaware Lewis who was MP for Devonport and who died childless.
He was a lieutenant in the Hampshire Yeomanry on 22 Dec 1883, a captain on 27 Feb 1886. He reached his majority on 3 July 1895 and during the Boer War he served from Feb 1900, later given the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel in command of a battalion of Imperial Yeomanry from 3 Oct to 31 Dec 1900. He was then AAG in Cape Town. He was awarded the DSO, gazetted on 27 Sep 1901. On his return he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the Hampshire Carabiniers, on 20 June 1902. He was promoted to Colonel and appointed Military Attache in Paris from 1915 to 1919. In 1912 he was a CB, and in 1918 appointed CMG as well as receiving French and Belgian honours. In Hampshire he was Deputy Lieutenant and JP.
He lived at Westbury House, Petersfield, Hampshire. He was married to Kathleen Newcomen in 1888 and they had a daughter Ysolt in 1889 and a son Stuyvesant in 1905 and three other daughters. Colonel Herman Le Roy-Lewis died on 7 June 1931 aged 70, and was buried at St John the Evangelist churchyard, West Meon, Winchester.
