Roland Lewis was born in Ystalyfera, near Swansea, on 23 November 1908, the third of five sons. His father, William James, who was from an old Cardiganshire family of farmers, trained in Edinburgh and became a GP and medical officer of health to the rural district of Pontardawe. His mother was Constance Mary née Adeney, of the family firm of Swaine and Adeney of Piccadilly. His older brother, David Lincoln Lewis (qv this vol), was also FRCS. From the local county school in Ystalyfera, Lewis went to Epsom College and then to St John's College, Cambridge. He did his clinical training at St George's, played rugby for the London Welsh and Middlesex County, and won the Brackenbury prize in surgery. After qualifying, he became a surgical chief assistant. During the war he became an ENT specialist as a Major in the RAMC and afterwards returned to King's College and Mount Vernon Hospitals. He married Mary Christianna Milne in 1936. They had one adopted daughter. Mary wrote detective and children's stories under the *nom de plume* Christianna Brand, including the thriller *Green for danger*, which was made into a celebrated war-time film starring Alastair Sim. Lewis died on 1 February 2001.