Our father, Peter Lewis, who has died aged 87, was a mathematician who helped to optimise gas production and storage so that tariffs could be made cheaper and more sustainable, benefiting both the gas industry and consumers.
He was born in Mumbles, near Swansea, south Wales, to Olwen Lewis, and was brought up by his grandparents. His grandfather had been a miner in Merthyr Tydfil, and subsequently worked in the US, in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. He returned with enough money to leave mining, open a cafe in Dowlais and later on run a small newsagent’s in Swansea. The family moved several times in Peter’s young life, eventually settling in Edgbaston, Birmingham, where they ran a boarding house.
Peter went to King Edward’s school, Birmingham, the first of his family to be educated beyond the age of 14. A visit from the headteacher persuaded his family that he should go to university. He read mathematics at Birmingham University, living at home to help out with the family business. While studying he contracted TB and spent a year in a sanatorium, and was one of the first people to be cured by tetracycline.
After graduating, he worked for the aircraft manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth in Coventry as one of the team designing Sea Slug, a surface-to-air missile. When he went on to work for the West Midlands Gas Board, in Solihull, he really came into his own. He used statistical methods, working with engineers and economists, to improve gas production and storage. West Midlands Gas soon became the most profitable branch in the country.
Peter moved to British Gas headquarters in London and by the time of his retirement, in 1992, was assistant group director for planning, representing British Gas in Brussels and Geneva. He was also an active member of Chatham House, the science policy research unit at Sussex University and the Royal Statistical Society.
In retirement, he poured his energy and expertise into helping others, through the Citizens Advice Bureau in Northampton. He also travelled widely, including trips to China, Japan, India, Russia, Turkey and the Caribbean. Peter was a great connoisseur of jazz and classical music, especially opera, and made a number of trips with friends to the Wexford and Glyndebourne festivals.
In 1956, Peter married Philomena Walsh, from Co Cork. This began Peter’s great love of Ireland and the Irish and he became a valued member of Philomena’s extended family. Her death from sepsis in 1998 at the age of 64 was a traumatic experience that altered his life irrevocably.
Peter is survived by us, as well as six grandchildren, Gautam, Joe, Edmund, Kieran, Lindiwe and Olivia, and by his sister, Dawn.
