Bewley, (Thomas) Kenneth (1890–1943), civil servant, was born 3 July 1890 in Dublin, one of four children of quakers Henry Theodore Bewley, MD, of 26 Lower Baggot St., and his wife Eveleen, daughter of Thomas Pim of Greenbank, Monkstown, Co. Dublin. Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he entered the civil service (treasury) in 1913 and served in the RASC 1914–18. Seconded to the Irish Department of Finance from 14 March 1922 to 27 January 1923, he was a strong advocate of the new department's control and worked closely with Joseph Brennan (qv), deputising as comptroller and auditor general and playing a key role in the creation of the department, in particular bringing army expenditure under control. In November 1922 he drafted the first estimates circular (for 1923–4) prepared in the department, a word-for-word copy of the corresponding British treasury circular of 1922. Recommending the establishment of the cost-of-living-index committee (1922), he was appointed to it as the department's representative. It was with regret that W. T. Cosgrave (qv) acceded to Bewley's request to return to London.
In 1932 Bewley prepared a special memorandum, ‘Financial relations between Great Britain and the Irish Free State’, for the use of the British Library of Information at Washington in counteracting Irish-American propaganda. Shortly afterwards he became financial adviser to the British embassy in Washington (1933–9). Rising to the rank of principal assistant secretary in the British treasury, he was appointed CMG (1939). He died 23 June 1943 at Limpsfield, Surrey;, the gross value of his estate was £24,122.
He married (1919) Phyllis Mary Malden; they had two sons, and lived at Hampstead Hill Gardens, London NW3. His brother was Charles Bewley (qv).