Aubrey Lewis
21 January 1975 (aged 74)
Australian
Psychiatrist
Being the first Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry
Hilda North Stoessiger
Two sons, two daughters
Early life[edit]
Aubrey Julian Lewis was born on 8 November 1900 in Adelaide, the only child of Jewish parents George Solomon Lewis (died 23 May 1931), an English accountant known only as George Lewis, and his South Australian-born wife Rachel "Ré" Lewis (née Isaacs), a sister of Levi Isaacs, prominent member of Adelaide's Jewish community. Ré and Levi were among six children who were brought out to South Australia from Newcastle upon Tyne by their parents Solomon Isaacs (c. 1830 – 30 August 1913) and his wife Pauline (c. 1830 – 14 July 1923) aboard the ship Sophia around 1865[1]
George Lewis married Ré Isaacs, elocution teacher and Adelaide Synagogue's longtime Sabbath School teacher, at the Synagogue on 16 August 1899.[2]
Lewis was educated at Christian Brothers College, Wakefield Street, Adelaide, where he proved to be a gifted pupil. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated with distinction in 1923 (M.B., B.S.).[3]
Personal life[edit]
On 22 February 1934 at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, Marylebone, London Lewis married Hilda North Stoessiger, a child psychiatrist. Hilda died in 1966 which affected Lewis greatly. They had two daughters and two sons, all of whom survived Lewis. Lewis died on 21 January 1975 in Charing Cross Hospital, London. A memorial service was held in April at the Synagogue in which he had been married.
Lewis had an austere appearance, captured in Ruskin Spear's official portrait of 1966. But to those who knew him his high standards of personal and professional integrity went with a warm, kindly, humorous disposition which earned him the affection of colleagues and friends.[3] Michael Shepherd described him as a "representative man" in Emerson's sense of the term.[7]