Hewitt was born in Macclesfield, England on February 23, 1885. His parents were Thomas Henry Hewitt and Rachel Frost. Hewitt studied at the King Edward VI Grammar School in Macclesfield, and subsequently attended the University of Manchester from 1902 to 1909. He received a BSc in 1902, an MSc in 1903 and a DSc in 1909 from that university, and was appointed assistant lecturer in zoology in 1902 and lecturer in economic zoology in 1909.
Department of Agriculture
Expansion of entomology services
Hewitt was appointed dominion entomologist of Canada in May 1909, the second to hold that post, succeeding James Fletcher. He travelled to Canada in September of the same year to take up his position, and immediately began an overhaul of the entomology service in the Department of Agriculture. By 1915, Hewitt had expanded the entomology service from a small division of the experimental-farms branch into its own branch of the Department with four divisions, each headed by an entomologist. These divisions included systemic entomology, field-crop and garden insects, forest insects, and foreign-pest suppression. Hewitt had a talent for attracting the top entomologists of the time, including Reginald Charles Treherne and Norman Criddle. In 1916, Hewitt became consulting zoologist to the dominion as well as dominion entomologist.
Destructive Insect and Pest Act 1910
Hewitt was instrumental in the initiation and implementation of the Destructive Insect and Pest Act 1910. Hewitt helped draft the act, and established twelve field laboratories, which sought to investigate insect problems and outbreaks regionally through the central federal government. Hewitt structured entomological issues as a central issue, which resulted in a vast number of insect-pest problems in the agricultural industry being solved.
Conservation biology
Hewitt was also very involved with the parks and forestry branches of the Department of the Interior, working closely with James Bernard Harkin on the subjects of bird sanctuaries, game preserves, and the general protection of wildlife. He helped to further negotiations in the 1916 Convention on the Protection of Migratory Birds in Canada and the United States, which provides regulations on the hunting of migratory game birds. Hewitt was also instrumental in the negotiation of the Northwest Game Act of 1917, which set regulations for the hunting of birds and animals in the north of Canada.
Hewitt was awarded the gold medal of the RSPB in 1918 for his role in negotiating the Convention on the Protection of Migratory Birds of 1916 and for his role in negotiating the Northwest Game Act of 1917.
He contracted influenza after returning from the Federal Commission of Conservation in Montreal in February 1920. Several days later his influenza developed into pleural pneumonia, and he died at the age of 35 on February 29, 1920.
