Category: medicine

Cardigan People 21: Dr William Bevan-Lewis (1847–1929)

Dr William Bevan-Lewis (21.05.1847–14.10.1929)

Born at Cardigan 21 May 1847, to William Thomas Lewis (formerly of Trefgarn, Pembrokeshire) and Jane (Mansel Bevan) his wife. William Thomas (the father) was a tailor and draper at no. 9 High St. William B. was the third of 5 children.

He was educated at Cardigan and then Guy’s hospital in London. He obtained his MRCS, LRCP and LSA in 1868. He practised medicine at Burry Port for four years, and then joined the staff of the West Riding Asylum at Wakefield, where he remained for thirty-five years, eventually becoming its medical director. For twenty-five years, too, he was connected with what has now become the University of Leeds, and latterly was professor of mental diseases there.

According to Sir James Crichton-Brown, writing in the British Medical Journal after his death in 1929:

“Dr William Bevan-Lewis was one of the most diligent and productive of labourers in the field of medical psychology in this country during the last quarter of the last century and the first decade of [20th c.]

“After completing his studies at Guy’s Hospital… he became assistant medical officer at the Buckingham County Asylum… “ but after 2 yrs returned to Cardigan to begin private practice. “He soon found that his occupation in a mountainous district of Wales (sic!) was uncongenial, and left him no opportunity for the research work in which he earnestly desired to engage”

[At least he didn’t say he came from the Valleys!]

He began work at the West Riding Asylum in 1875.

He was the author of a number of text-books and publications on mental disease, including:

  • Human Brain, Histological and coarse methods of research (1882)
  • Textbook of the Mental Diseases with special reference to the pathological aspects of insanity (1889)
  • and the section devoted to the general pathology of the nervous system in Allbutt’s System of Medicine.

Some of these books are in print and available to buy on Amazon…

Bevan-Lewis received the honorary M.Sc. degree of the University of Leeds in 1905, and was president of the Medico-Psychological Association in the same year.

The value of his work has been fully appreciated by his own specialty at home and abroad, and has been widely recognized by the profession at large. One of the gentlest and most unobtrusive of men in an age when notoriety is the universal quest, Bevan-Lewis persistently kept himself in the background.

He died on 14 October 1929, at the age of 82 years.

When you walk pass no. 9 High St. remember Dr Bevan-Lewis.

Maybe it’s time for a blue plaque!

Cardigan People 17: Dr James M. Phillips; Dr Llewellyn C. P. Phillips

Dr James Mathias Phillips M.D., M.R.C.S., L.S.A. (1839–1903)

Native of St Dogmaels. In 1870 he was surgeon to Morfa Colliery, Margam. Returned to Cardigan during the 1880s. Lived and worked from 10 Priory St. Mayor in 1882. By 1901 he was living in Bank House, 6 High St. Baptist, member at Blaenwaun, Buried at Blaenwaun. His son Llewellyn Caractacus Powell Phillips was also a doctor (see below).

Dr Llewellyn Caractacus Powell Phillips M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S. (1871–1927):

This is what the British Medical Journal has to say about him:

He was born at Taibach, Glam. on July 28th 1871. In 1881 he was living in 10 Priory St. From Epsom College he went to Caius College, Cambridge, in 1889, obtaining first-class honours in Part I of the Natural Science Tripos of 1892, and then entered as a student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He qualified as MRCS, LRCP, in 1894, took the MB and B.Ch Camb degrees, in 1895, and in 1897 obtained diploma of FRCS Eng. In 1903 he proceeded MD and obtained MRCP and in 1909 elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. He practised for a while at Cardigan. (c.1898)
His career in Egypt began when he was appointed resident surgical officer of the Kasr-el-Aini Hospital Cairo. Elected Professor of Medicine in the Royal School of Medicine, Cairo. During WW1 he held a temporary commission as lieutenant-colonel RAMC, and commanded the British Red Cross Hospital at Giza; he was mentioned four times in dispatches. From 1914 to 1917 he held the appointment of physician to H.H. la Hussein Kamel, Sultan of Egypt, and for his services was made a member of the Orders of the Nile and of the Medjidie.
He made a remarkable collection of old Arab glass weights and coins, and died at his house in Cairo in January, 1927.
He contributed articles on tropical medicine to various medical journals including: “Phlebotomus Fever” in Bryan and Archibald’s Practice of Medicine in the Tropics, v Amoebiasis and the Dysenteries, 8vo, London, 1915.

There is a plaque in memory of this gentleman in St Mary’s Church:
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6273412