Eric Cyril Lewis was born in Hull and educated at Beverley Grammar School. He studied medicine at Charing Cross Hospital and graduated in 1953. Surgical appointments followed at Plymouth and Wolverhampton and medical service with the armed forces in Kenya. He returned to his old teaching hospital as senior orthopaedic registrar and made a study of neonatal orthopaedics, including an extended survey of congenital dislocation of the hip. He took the FRCS in 1962. He joined the Croydon Group of Hospitals as consultant in 1966 and immediately threw himself into the life of the local medical community. He took part in the planning of the orthopaedic and accident services at Croydon. His closest colleagues were quick to recognise and appreciate this and were grateful that he assumed so much of the necessary burden of administration. He was especially interested in the rehabilitation unit at Queen's Hospital, in the rheumatoid unit at Croydon General, and in the subject of surgery of the hand. He was a member of the Association of Hand Surgeons. Eric was an enthusiastic member of the BMA and was due to assume the chairmanship of his division the month following his death. His great contribution was matched by his very taxing duties on the area medical committee, the management team, and the medical executive committee. All who served with him, laymen and medical, had nothing but praise for his distinguished service. Typical of his perspicacity and foresight was his keen advocacy of the appointment of a consultant surgeon for the casualty and accident services at Croydon. He was a prodigious worker, but, in the words of a colleague, he was a man who always found time to listen and to give attention to the other man's viewpoint. Among his many friends he was happiest with the Croydon Mariners, where his talents as a yachtsman were matched by his high reputation in the galley; but the centre of his life was his family. He married Pauline in Nanyuki, Kenya, whilst doing National Service in 1956 and they had three daughters, the oldest of whom is a medical student. He died suddenly of coronary thrombosis on 22 April, 1977, aged 47 years.