William Vaughan Lewis was born on 2 June 1907 in Pontypridd, Wales. He was educated at Pontypridd County Grammar School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating in 1929. He was appointed a student demonstrator in the geography department, later becoming a university lecturer in geography in 1945 and fellow of Trinity College in 1949. Interested in glaciology, he joined the Cambridge Iceland Expedition (leader Brian Roberts) as seismologist and surveyor in 1932, and subsequent visits there and to Norway led him to write many papers on the physiography of glaciated regions. He participated in expeditions to Swiss glaciers and organized student expeditions to Jotunheimen in Norway. While on a visit to North America lecturing and conducting field-work, he died in a motor accident at de Witt, Iowa, on 8 June 1961.
Published work Investigation on Norwegian cirque glaciers edited by William Vaughan Lewis, Royal Geographical Society London (1960) SPRI Library Shelf (58)551.324.22
From the guide to the William Lewis collection, 1932, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
