Lewis spent his entire 42-year academic career in English naval colleges. In 1913, he was appointed an assistant master at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, remaining there until 1920, when he was transferred to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. In 1922, he was appointed assistant head of history and English at Dartmouth. Shortly after his marriage, he was appointed Professor of History and English in 1934 at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, a position he held until his retirement in 1955. While holding that position, he was Director of the Sub-lieutenants General Education Course, 1946-1955 at Greenwich. Additionally, he was lecturer in English to the Royal Navy Staff College, 1943-1957, and in Naval history, 1945-1953. He was lecturer in naval history to the Royal Navy Senior Officers War Course, 1947-1953.
Lewis was an active member of the Navy Records Society, serving on its publication committee and council from 1938, as well as becoming vice president from 1939. Equally active in the Society for Nautical Research, he was a member of council from 1935, vice president in 1946, chairman of council from 1951 to 1960 and president from 1960 to 1970. Additionally, he was a member of the HMS Victory Advisory Technical Committee from 1955. In 1952-1953, Lewis was the introducer on British television for the American series of 26, one-half hour television programmes on navies in the Second World War, Victory at Sea.
Published writings
Historical writings
England's sea-officers: the story of the naval profession. London Allen & Unwin, 1939, 1948.
British ships and British seamen. London: British Council, 1940; Translated as Britiske skip og britiske sjømenn , 1943; Britische schefen en Britische zeelieden, door Michael Lewis... Vertaald door A. J. Staal. Geïllustreerde uitgave. , by Sir William Henry Dillon, edited by Michael Lewis. Two volumes. Greenwich: Navy Records Society, 1953-1956.
The history of the British navy. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957.
Ancestors; a personal exploration into the past. London, Hodder & Stoughton .
The Hawkins dynasty: three generations of a Tudor family. London, Allen & Unwin, 1969.
Spithead; an informal history''. London, Allen & Unwin, 1972.
Fiction
Afloat & Ashore. London: Allen & Unwin, 1921.
Beg o’ the Upland. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1922.
The Brand of the Beast. London: Allen & Unwin, 1924.
Fleeting follies. London: Allen & Unwin, 1924.
The Island of disaster. London: Allen & Unwin, 1926.
Roman Gold. London: Allen & Unwin, 1927.
The Three Amateurs. LOndon: Houghton, 1929.
The Crime of Herbert Wratislaus. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1931.
Other works
In addition, Lewis contributed the biography of Sir Geoffrey Callender to the Dictionary of National Biography, and the article "Armed Forces and the Art of War, 1830-1870" in the New Cambridge Modern History. He also wrote for periodicals, including Punch, Mariner's Mirror, Seafarer, the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, The Times, The Listener, Overseas, and the New Statesman.
