Lesley Lewis

Lesley Lewis (née Lawrence; 8 March 1909 – 29 January 2010) was an English art historian and architectural historian, whose research focused on the Georgian era. She is known for her work to conserve Britain's architectural heritage. Her 1980 memoir of life in a minor country house before the Second World War remains in print, and provides a valuable record of this period.

Early life and education Lewis was born in 1909 to an upper-middle-class family. Her father, James Lawrence, was a solicitor from a legal family that included James Bacon, vice-chancellor of the Court of Chancery. Her mother, Kathleen (née Potts), was the daughter of a soldier. Lewis had an elder brother, Bill, and two younger sisters, Barbara and Joyce. She was the niece of Susan Lawrence, an early female MP of the Labour Party. She gained BA and MA degrees in art history; "The Rise of Neo-Classic Architecture in England" was the title of her thesis, which was supervised by James Byam Shaw.

In 1944, she married Dr David James Lewis, a medical entomologist who researched the insect vectors of tropical diseases such as leishmaniasis and malaria. He was the son of the rector of Shenfield, near her childhood home. Her book Connoisseurs and Secret Agents in Eighteenth Century Rome, published in 1961, focuses on the secret relationship between Albani, a Hanoverian sympathiser, and Philipp von Stosch, a Prussian antiquarian and collector who was unmasked as a spy for the British government. Lewis's obituary in The Times credits her research with stimulating the formation of the Georgian Society of Jamaica. and Home House by Robert Adam, the building that formerly housed the Courtauld Institute.

Memoir Her memoir, The Private Life of a Country House (1912–1939), recounts her childhood years at Pilgrims Hall, and forms a detailed account of upper-middle-class family life in a small English country house with servants before the Second World War. and a review of the first edition states "The charm of this book is that so many of the details of everyday life come alive and the more ordinary, prosaic things take on their true importance ... Reading it is rather like peering through the windows of a long-forgotten doll's house." Her recollections have been quoted by several recent texts; Pamela Sambrook writes that Lewis is "particularly successful at retrieving the memory of domestic trivia."

Heritage work and later life Lewis joined the Georgian Group in 1938, shortly after its foundation, and served as its chair in 1972–79, remaining on its executive committee until 1981. She also served on various committees of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. She served as chair of the Chelsea Society in 1980–87. Her obituarist in The Times called the society her "spiritual home." She was one of the trustees of Sir John Soane's Museum. She died in 2010, aged 100.

Selected works Books Connoisseurs and Secret Agents in Eighteenth Century Rome (1961) The Private Life of a Country House (1912–1939) (1980) The Thomas More Family Group Portraits After Holbein (1998) Articles "English commemorative sculpture in Jamaica" (1972)