Cylchgronau Cymru

Pioneers of Public Health: Dr. Timothy Richards Lewis M.B.c.M.F.R.s.(eiect). by J.H. Thomas. On learning as a medical student that Trypanozoma lewisii was the cause of Sleeping Sickness in the tropics I wondered whether Lewis had been a Welshman. Little did I expect that later in life I would appreciate that fact in a rather unusual manner. In 1993 a mend showed me a hand written letter, dated August 29 1876, addressed to 'My dear Bessie' from her brother TRTewis, The General Hospital, Calcutta. It stated that a crossed cheque for twenty guineas was being enclosed as a wedding present and pointed out that he had gained weight and would have to put himself on 'bara- dwfr for a few weeks'.1 Another comment was also relevant 1 have been busily concocting reports since my return from Almora, getting odds and ends into shape, but I am sorry to say the materials are far from being ready for the printers I have a lot of work to arrange figures things that I am not at all good at managing however one must shuffle through somehow. On realising that the Lewis, who had written the letter was the illustrious Dr. Lewis I enquired about Bessie and was told that she was my friend's grandmother. On further questioning I learnt that she was none other than Mrs Owen, Tycoed farm, Glogue, whom I had known when I was a child. The circumstances were such that it seemed imperative that I should find out more about Dr. Lewis. Biography Timothy Richards (Lewis) was bom on 31 October, 1841, at Hafod, Llangan, Carmarthenshire. His mother, a farmer's daughter, Britannia Richards (1820 1881), married William Lewis (1821 1901) at Uanboidy (Carms.) on 10 October, 1843, and later moved to Timothy Richards Lewis from a photogravure plate produced after his death apparently from an earlier photograph.