Bewley, Henry Theodore (1860–1945), physician and lecturer, was born 25 June 1860 at Willow Park, Booterstown, Co. Dublin, into a leading quaker family, only surviving son of Henry Bewley (qv), businessman, and Anne Bewley (née Pike). He was educated privately before entering TCD, where his prizes, scholarships, and degrees included first senior moderatorship in natural science with large gold medal, BA (1882), MB and surgical travelling prize to Vienna (1884), and MD (1888). In 1886 he received his diploma of state medicine and became member of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. Licentiate (1885), member (1887), and fellow (1888) of the King and Queen's College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI), he was the first recipient of its Reuben Harvey memorial prize (1885) for his essay ‘The changes occurring in the skin in some forms of disease’ (Dubl. Jn. Med. Sc., lxxx (1885), 85–95, 305–15). He later served the college as examiner and as treasurer (1909–44), but declined nomination as president.
As a student (1881) he joined the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, was awarded its Hudson scholarship (1884), and was successively appointed assistant physician, physician (1895–1925), and consulting physician (1925–45), and served as hon. secretary (1915–22), and chairman of the board of management (1922–8), where he contributed to the high reputation the hospital enjoyed. Appointed assistant to the professor of physiology (1885) in TCD, he served as the college's first lecturer in medical jurisprudence and hygiene (1888–1935) and was a regular contributor to medical journals. A member (1886–1932) of TCD's Biological Club, he was elected its president and, after his resignation, was made an honorary member.
Kind and unremittingly attentive, he was acknowledged as a leading physician and had one of the largest practices in Dublin; he was medical officer to the Church of Ireland Training College, Dublin, and visiting physician to the Bloomfield private mental hospital. When the Irish White Cross was founded (1920) to relieve the distress of the civilian population during the war of independence, he became a member of its general council. A prominent member of the Society of Friends, he appreciated the value of other denominations, whose services he frequently attended and, on occasion, conducted. He died 8 January 1945 at his home, 27 Pembroke Rd, Dublin. The H. T. Bewley fund was established by the Adelaide Hospital in memory of his contribution to its social work department. He married (16 August 1887) Elizabeth Eveleen Pim. Of their four sons, Charles Henry Bewley (qv) was a diplomat, and Thomas Kenneth Bewley (qv) advised the Irish Free State Department of Finance (1922–3) and was financial adviser to the British embassy in the USA (1933–9). The other two sons became physicians: Maurice Bewley practised in London; (Arthur) Geoffrey Bewley (1894–1981), was born 6 September 1894 in Dublin, and was educated at Winchester School, England. He entered TCD (1912) to study medicine, but despite his quaker background he interrupted his studies to serve in the first world war and was twice mentioned in despatches. Graduating from TCD (MB 1922, MD 1925), he was elected FRCSI (1923) and FRCPI (1927), and succeeded his father as treasurer (1944–74) of the RCPI. He won the Adelaide Hospital's Hudson prize, was appointed assistant physician (1923–5), and succeeded his father as physician at the Adelaide (1925–60); he also served as secretary, chairman, and vice-president of the medical board and secretary of the nursing committee. Interested in tuberculosis, he directed the opening of two pulmonary tuberculosis wards; he developed the treatment of mental illness by encouraging the appointment of H. J. Eustace (1908–96) as psychotherapist to the Adelaide – the first such post to be established in a general teaching hospital – and was physician to the Bloomfield private mental hospital; he also served as the first chairman of the Dublin Almoners Committee (1935–81). Appointed professor of social, preventive, and forensic medicine at the RCSI (1942–70), he published papers in medical journals. He had a great love and knowledge of music and of modern art. Geoffrey Bewley died 12 August 1981. He married (1925) Victoria J. Wilson; their two children Thomas and Mary both became fellows of the RCPI.