Thomas Bewley 1926-2022

Thomas Bewley, who died aged 95 last June, was a highly distinguished psychiatrist who had a major impact on the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction, as noted by extensive obituaries in the Irish Times, Guardian, Telegraph, and Times, amongst others.

Thomas Bewley

(Source.)

He was born in Dublin in 1926 into the prominent Quaker family; as he described it himself, he was part of the ‘medical’ branch, and the ‘café’ branch were cousins. As described in the Guardian obituary, at the age of eight he was sent to Arnold House, a boys prep school in Wales, where he developed a love of chess. He went on to Rugby School, but returned to Ireland at the outbreak of the Second World War and finished school at St. Columba’s College. From 1944 to 1950 he studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin, then worked at the Adelaide Hospital and St. Patrick’s, before leaving for England in 1956, where he spent most of the rest of his life.

He won the inaugural Irish Inter-Universities Individual Championship in 1948, and shared the title again in 1950. He also played for Trinity in the Armstrong Cup from 1946-47 to 1954-1955.

He played in one Irish championship, in Belfast in 1950, where he finished equal 5th-11th out of 22, on 4½/8. His one game in the ICU games archive is from that event, from round 5, against Warwick Nash of Athlone, several times Olympiad player and Irish correspondence champion.

Bewley - Nash, Irish Championship 1950
Bewley – Nash, Irish Championship 1950 (5)
Final position

It’s a fine attacking win, based on an enterprising opening. If this is typical of his style, it’s puzzling that there are so few of his games in the archives.

[Click to replay the full game.]

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