born in Nairobi, Kenya, to missionary parents, the Reverend Thomas Francis Cecil Bewes and Nellie Sylvia Cohu Bewes née Berry.
General Surgeon
Consultant surgeon in Uganda and Tanzania, and then at Birmingham Accident Hospital.
He was educated at Marlborough College and then won an exhibition to his father’s old college, Emmanuel, Cambridge in 1950
He was one of the stalwart members of the college’s Christian Union
Clinical training at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1956
“After house posts and National Service in Malaya, he was a house surgeon at Lambeth Hospital, then a casualty officer at Tunbridge Wells, a senior house officer at the Royal Marsden Hospital and a surgical registrar at Eastbourne. He was subsequently appointed against strong competition as a registrar to Norman Tanner and Andrew Desmond at St James’ Hospital, Balham, one of the most sought after posts in London.”
Gained an FRCS in 1963 and a MChir in 1966
Married Hilary Bryant in December 1966
During their respective studies both Peter and Hilary had felt called to serve overseas, so during their engagement they approached Christian Mission Society and were accepted as mission candidates.
Moved to Kampala, Uganda, in 1968 as a senior registrar in surgery
He became senior lecturer at Makerere University in 1970 and worked alongside Mulago Hospital’s experienced and thoughtful surgeons – Sir Ian McAdam and R L Huckstep.
Left Kampala in 1972 and became a consultant surgeon at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Tanzania. His work in Uganda and Tanzania from 1968 to 1979 was extremely important for surgery in Africa.
Especially enjoyed teaching medical students at Mulago and the enthusiastic and able medical assistants at KCMC. “They were being upgraded as assistant medical officers for district or mission rural hospitals. He realised that they had to have surgical skills. He therefore set about identifying what could be done inexpensively and without advanced equipment. He was not content that they should feel disadvantaged because the costs of more modern methods were far beyond their budget. He knew that there was no appropriate book for them and so he wrote a text on surgery for medical assistants”
He demonstrated that nylon thread, strong enough for fishermen’s nets on Lake Victoria, was as good as imported thread thousands of times more expensive, and that Perkins’ traction for femur fractures was easily done and of low cost – he admitted that it might lead to a little shortening, but it enabled the victim to return to work without crippling costs or infection.
He returned to the United Kingdom in 1979 as a consultant surgeon at the Birmingham Accident Hospital – the transition was not easy. “He had joined a health service which was totally different; the simple yet effective measures that he had used in Tanzania, and which he wanted to use in Birmingham, were not welcomed.”
His African experience was useful in that he was able to deal with a wider range of injuries, from those normally dealt with by general or cardiac surgeons to those dealt with by orthopaedic surgeons.
Retired from the NHS in 1993, after a heart attack and triple bypass surgery
Returned to Africa in 1994, invited by Francis Omaswa (an ex pupil), then chief surgeon to the Government of Uganda and head of the Ministry of Health’s quality assurance programme.
Omaswa wanted him to pioneer a programme of continuing medical education for district hospitals in Uganda and rural medical officers. He decided to take up the challenge, and went out, with Hilary, as a CMS mission associate.
His work was supported by the Nuffield Foundation through the Tropical Health and Education Trust.
His work was so successful, the Ministry of Health directed every rural hospital to establish and sustain its own programme of education for all the staff.
He was one of the principal contributors to Maurice King’s *Primary surgery* (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1987 volume one: 1990 volume two) text
In 1998 Peter decided it was time to retire, so he and Hilary came back, and bought a house in a small Norfolk village.
He became churchwarden, and preached occasionally in the benefice
He also contributed to the CMF medical missionaries’ refresher course, both as a lecturer and, with Hilary, as houseparent.
Had three daughters, Carol, Anna, and Helen.
The many letters that he wrote home to his parents from Uganda and Tanzania describing his professional and private life were donated by him to the Bodleian Library
His book entitled “Surgery” gained global recognition and not only in the African subcontinent. It taught effective surgery in resource limited conditions as well as a non-operative approach to certain fractures. E.g. fractures of the shaft of femur managed in traction.