Brews was the son of a general practitioner, Richard Vincent Brews, LRCSI, and his wife Edith Manifold; he was born in North Woolwich in 1902. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and became a medical student at the London Hospital in 1920. After gaining many prizes he qualified in 1924, taking the diplomas of the Conjoint Examining Board. This was followed by five remarkable years when he took an additional degree or higher diploma each year. In 1925 he gained distinctions in surgery and midwifery in the MB, BS London final examinatons. In 1926 directly after completing the post of house-surgeon to Robert Milne and to Sir Henry Souttar he passed the final FRCS examination a year before he was old enough to be given the Diploma. In 1927 he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and in 1928 became a Master of Surgery of the University of London. His final examination success was for the MRCP 1929. He was later awarded the FRCOG diploma in 1940, and in 1961 was elected FRCP London. After house appointments at the London Hospital he became obstetric and gynaecological registrar there and was greatly influenced by the consultants Sir Eardley Holland and Victor Lack. In June 1931 at the early age of 29 he was appointed to the consultant staff of the Hospital. He then made a close study of cervical carcinoma with special reference to its treatment by radium, work that was highly regarded by the Radium Commission. In 1934 he gave a Hunterian Lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons on chorion carcinoma and hydatidiform mole, a subject on which he became a world authority, and in 1939 one of the first two Blair Bell lectures at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on the same subjects. For many years he was Curator of the Museum and Chairman of the Pathology Committee of that College, with a seat on the Council. At the London Hospital he collected and recorded pathological specimens for the Medical College Museum. He took over the editorship of Eden and Holland's *Manual of obstetrics*, when Sir Eardley Holland retired. In 1957 as President of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Royal Society of Medicine, he lectured on "Some clinical aspects of developmental anomalies of the female genito-urinary tract" (*Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine* 1957, 50, 199). Alan Brews was an outstanding teacher, with a flair for simple expression. He was an Examiner for the Universities of London, Cambridge, Liverpool, Durham, Hong Kong, and the West Indies, and for the Royal Colleges. He was an active member of the Gynaecological Travelling Club. As an obstetrician he was outstanding. Brews was a Governor of the London Hospital and its Medical College for many years, and became President of its Medical Council and its Academic Board; he was also President of the Benevolent Club. He joined the Society of Apothecaries in 1934, was promoted to its Court in 1955 and was elected Master in August 1965; but he had contracted a serious illness, and was able to carry out only a few of his duties. Brews married in 1928 Gwyneth Grace daughter of the Rev Joseph Dixie Churchill, Rector of Little Bentley, Essex; their only son Geoffrey became prominent in business. He died after a long illness in the London Hospital on Christmas Day 1965 and was buried at Brentwood; a memorial service was held at St Philip's Church, Mile End on 19 January 1966.