Our People
4 March, 2026
Unforgettable surgeon left lasting mark on Ararat
Garry James Thomas Lewis — known by some simply as “GJT” or "Mr Lewis" — was not a man easily forgotten. For decades he was the district’s only surgeon, a formidable presence in theatre and in town alike: fiercely driven, occasionally controversial, often humorous, and utterly committed to the work he believed mattered.
Born in Southampton, England, on September 27, 1937, Garry was the third child of Frank and Dorothy Lewis, growing up with older sisters Gwendolyn and Patricia in what his son Mark described as a loving but financially tight household. Sport and scholarship both came early. A gifted runner, he earned a scholarship to Peter Symonds Grammar School in Winchester — becoming the first in his family to attend grammar school, and later the first to go to university.
At school he represented athletics for five consecutive years and played first soccer, while also competing in squash, badminton and tennis. Yet in later life he would insist he “wasn’t a great scholar”, attributing his academic success to what Mark called an “amazing memory” — one that seemed to retain everything he read.
Medicine followed at University College London, where Garry again immersed himself in sport, playing soccer and golf for the university and associated hospitals. In his fourth year he captained the soccer team. Mark later discovered a university newsletter noting Garry ran an eight-kilometre cross-country every day that year, completing it in 30 minutes — a detail that surprised even his family.
In London he met Jo Taylor. They married and built a family: Mark (1959), Adam (1961), Jason (1963) and Clea (1965).
A pivotal chapter began in 1963 when Garry accepted a post with the Cameroon Development Corporation in what was then British Cameroons. The six-to-nine-month placement offered financial relief and valuable surgical experience in demanding conditions. During his time there, a Douglas DC6 crashed into Mt Cameroon. Mark recalled that Garry and hospital staff hiked up the volcano in search of survivors, ultimately carrying two people back down to hospital.
That same period also saw personal loss for the family when Jason became gravely ill with dysentery and bronchopneumonia and died. He was buried in the CDC churchyard in Tiko.
Back in the United Kingdom, Garry passed his surgical exams and moved through placements before relocating to Glasgow, where he worked under pioneering vascular surgeon William Reed, who encouraged him to take up a position in Houston, Texas. Garry declined, instead choosing Australia after hearing positive reports about its health system — though, Mark noted, he would sometimes later reflect that he “probably should have gone to America”.
In 1967, he arrived in Ararat.
What followed was nearly three decades that would define both his career and his connection to the region. As the district’s general surgeon and a member of the Ararat Medical Centre, his workload was relentless. Mark described days beginning at 7am, stretching past dinner, and often continuing with late-night checks on patients. Weekends were no guarantee of rest.
His dedication, Mark said, was total. Garry loved that under the Australian system “everyone could get medical attention”, and he cared little whether a patient could afford treatment — only that they received it.
Outside the hospital, Ararat came to know the other side of GJT.
Early family homes in Banfield and Hewitt streets were lively with animals, including Daisy the Jersey house cow, horses, ferrets, dogs and cats — and, as Mark recalled, “a very angry goat.” Later came “Lythe Hill” on One Tree Hill, a home Garry and Jo built and named after a place in England.
Lythe Hill became the setting for many enduring local tales: cars rolling down the hill unattended; Garry being run over by his own tractor; and Boots the bull terrier routinely being escorted home by neighbours. In one oft-repeated story, a friend rang demanding Boots be collected urgently because “he won’t let me in my chair”.
Adam described his father as both inspiring and exasperating — “a tough bag of nails”, as one friend put it. Around 1970, Garry ran a 25-mile charity event in Ararat, promising a dollar per mile to the YMCA. His finishing time was right on the three-hour goal he had set himself, and he theatrically crawled over the line.
There were flashes of rebellion too. When police once requested blood samples of a patient to measure alcohol levels, Garry refused. The Ararat Advertiser ran the story under the headline “Fine for Dr. No.” Yet Adam also recalled how his father would quietly excuse himself from dinner, only for the family to later discover he had slipped away to remove an appendix. “His commitment to the medicine,” Adam said, “was absolute.”
Life brought change. After his divorce, Garry later formed a partnership with Louise Turner Pratt and eventually remarried. Then at 60, while still living in Ararat, he suffered a significant heart attack and was treated at Ararat Hospital — care he would later describe as “the best possible”.
In time, Garry and Louise moved to Queensland, where he continued practising medicine and later worked with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Following Louise’s death, he returned to Victoria. Shortly after selling his Queensland home, he became acutely unwell, rallied, and was flown back to Warrnambool, where he was able to meet his newest great-grandchild, Billie. He died peacefully in his sleep on October 25, 2025, a week later.
He is survived by his children Mark, Adam and Clea, their families, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
For Ararat, Garry Lewis leaves a legacy measured not only in surgical skill, but in stories, service and sheer force of personality. He was complex, driven, occasionally divisive — and undeniably committed to his town.
As family friend Annie Kilpatrick said, he was “an inspiration; a force.”
And in Ararat, that force will not be forgotten.
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