Revd Canon Richard Ames-Lewis

We were deeply saddened to learn the passing of alumnus and former staff colleague, Revd Canon Richard Ames-Lewis. We were truly blessed by his friendship and loyal support towards the College. He will be very much missed. Obituary and photograph kindly shared by Mrs Katharine Ames-Lewis.

Richard Ames-Lewis, who died suddenly on 17 May from an unexpected heart attack, was born in Marlborough where his father was serving at RAF Yatesbury. On return to Notting Hill, London, a few years later, Richard was educated at St Paul’s School, Hammersmith, and then at Emmanuel College Cambridge 1963 – 65. He studied architecture under Sir Leslie Martin, and when he had completed the architecture course, he was offered a job in Sir Leslie’s architecture practice in Little Shelford. By then he was married to Katharine, a Newnham English graduate, and during the early 1970s they had three children, Eleanor, Caroline and Jonathan. By 1976, Richard had felt a calling to the priesthood, and was selected for a two-year training in Ely Diocese. He studied at Westcott House under Mark Santer, while still living at home in Victoria St, a rich experience for every member of the family. In June 1978 he was ordained deacon in Rochester Cathedral and served his curacy in the parish of St Mark, Bromley South. In 1981 the family moved to the parish of SS Peter and Paul Edenbridge, Kent, and in 1983 he was then appointed Vicar of that same parish. A further move in Jan 1991 was to be Team Rector of St Mary Barnes, in Southwark Diocese. Then finally in 2000, he moved to Norwich Diocese to be Rector of St Nicholas, East Dereham.

After this varied service as parish priest to a variety of parishes in three different dioceses, he retired in 2009 and moved back to Cambridge, to the original family home in Victoria St. From there he exercised a retirement ministry at the church of St Bene’t’s, and also served as a temporary tutor on two occasions at Westcott, as well as a temporary chaplain for a term at Trinity College.

Richard was a member of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis, and played an active role in Spiritual Direction for Westcott students as well as more widely in Ely Diocese between 2010 – 2025. He was also deeply involved in music making, playing his violin in a string quartet and the Cambridge Sinfonietta, and had a violin lesson on the morning of the day he died.