Tom Lewis was a respected London obstetrician and gynaecologist. He was born in Hampstead on 27 May 1918, but regarded himself as a South African of Welsh origin. His great-grandfather, Charles Lewis, had run away to sea from Milford Haven and settled in Cape Town in about 1850, where he established a sail-making business that was profitable until the coming of steam. His son, A J S Lewis, was a civil servant who became mayor of Cape Town and was ordained into the Anglican Church on retirement. In turn, A J S’s son, Tom’s father, Neville went to London to study art at the Slade School, where he met and married a fellow art student from Dublin, Theodosia Townshend. When the marriage broke up, Neville was left with three children under five, including Tom. They were sent to Cape Town, where they were brought up by their grandparents, A J S and Annie Solomon. Tom was educated at the Diocesan College, Rondebosch, where he had a good education, boxed and played rugby. Every two or three years their father would arrive unannounced from England, and they would go off by car all over South Africa to paint portraits. On one occasion a spear was thrown through a painting, which was feared to be taking part of the soul of its subject. In 1933, Neville and his second wife, Vera Player, bought a house in Chelsea and sent for them. Tom then went to St Paul’s School, from which he went to Jesus College, Cambridge, and Guy’s Hospital. As a student he won the gold medal in obstetrics. In 1943, he travelled by ship to Cape Town and enlisted in the South African Air Force as a doctor, but was then seconded to the RAMC, with whom he served in Egypt, Italy and Greece. After the war, he returned to Guy’s to take the FRCS and specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology. He captained the Guy’s rugby XV from 1946 to 1948, and was only prevented from playing for England against France by hepatitis. He played his last game for the first XV when he was aged 46. He was appointed as a consultant at Guy’s just before his 30th birthday, and to Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital and the Chelsea Hospital for Women two years later. A meticulous surgeon, he was a very distinguished teacher. He wrote three textbooks of obstetrics and gynaecology and his book *Progress in clinical obstetrics and gynaecology* (London, Joe A Churchill, 1956) became a classic. He served three times on the council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, was its honorary secretary from 1961 to 1968, senior vice-president from 1975 to 1978 and Sims Black travelling professor in 1970. He was President of the obstetric section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He was a consultant gynaecologist to the Army and an examiner to the Universities of Cambridge, London and St Andrews, the Society of Apothecaries and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. As a student, Tom had fallen in love with a Guy’s student nurse, Alexandra (‘Bunty’) Moore. They married in 1946 and had five sons. The eldest, John, became a doctor. In retirement, they built a holiday home on the island of Elba. A superb host, Tom was an authority on wine, fungi and astronomy. He died after a difficult last illness on 9 April 2004.