▶Date of birth:  c1836        Place of birth: Capel Garmon, Denbighshire

▶Father:  Thomas Lewis     Mother: Mary Ann Rebekah (Susannah) Wolseley

▶Spouse(s):  Emily Alicia Wolseley Bowen    Date(s) of marriage:  16 June 1864     Place(s) of marriage: West Malvern, Worcestershire

▶Occupation: Schoolmaster, Clergyman

▶Lifestory: Thomas was ordained a clergyman but spent his working life as a schoolmaster, teaching for over twenty years at Cheltenham College. He was the eldest son of groom Thomas Lewis and his wife Susannah; although he was born in Denbighshire, in 1851 the family lived at Duke Street, Cheltenham. Thomas was educated at Llanwrst Grammar School, Denbighshire, the Welsh Collegiate Institution in Llandovery, and then at Shrewsbury School 1852-4, from which he obtained a Paine’s scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford, Classical moderations (second class) 1857, BA (first class in Natural Science) 1858, MA 1861.

Deciding to take holy orders, he was ordained Deacon in 1863, and Priest (both Lichfield) in 1864. He was appointed Assistant Master at Llanwrst Grammar School in 1860, and taught Natural Sciences at the Welsh Collegiate Institution in Llandovery in 1861, becoming an Assistant Master at Shrewsbury School 1863-5. He married Emily Alicia Wolseley in 1864, at West Malvern: the couple had five children. In 1865 he returned to Llanwrst Grammar School as Headmaster 1865-70, before moving south to Cheltenham as Second Master of the Junior Department of Cheltenham College 1870-92 and head of a series of boarding houses; at the time of the 1881 census he was Housemaster of Garth Garmon (later Southwood House), and in the 1891 census, from the family’s home at St Idloes (now East Eglinton and West House, Pittville Circus), he describes himself as a “Classical Master” at the school; he continued to run the boarding house after he had retired from teaching.

By 1901 he had retired to Eirianva, Hornyold Road, Great Malvern, where he died in 1932, at the age of ninety-six; he was buried at St Peter Cowleigh Bank Churchyard, at Malvern. His effects at death amounted to just over £525.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Llanwrst, Denbighshire       Moved from Pittville to: Great Malvern

▶Date of death:  29 September 1932      Place of death: Eirianva, Hornyold Road, Great Malvern

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes: [still in post at Chelteham College in 1889:  Cheltenham College Register 1841-89, page 48] Garth-Garmon, Cheltenham [this was a Cheltenham College boarding house]  His later address was St Idloes, Cheltenham       ID: 10299

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden