Antony Hewish was born in Fowey, 11 May 1924, the son of Ernest William Hewish and Frances Grace Lanyon Pinch. He was educated at King's College, Taunton, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He married Marjorie Elizabeth Catherine Richards in 1950, with whom he had one son and one daughter.

His undergraduate degree at Cambridge was interrupted by wartime service at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, and the Telecommunications Research Establishment, Malvern, where he first worked with Martin Ryle, 1943-6. Returning to Cambridge in 1946, he completed his undergraduate degree in 1948 and joined Martin Ryle's research group at the Cavendish Laboratory, obtaining his PhD in 1952.

He was a Research Fellow, 1952-4, and Fellow, 1955-61, of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; a Lecturer, 1962-9, Reader, 1969-71, and Professor of Radioastronomy, 1971-89, at Cambridge University; and Director of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, 1982-8. He was also a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, 1962-2021.

In 1974, he and Martin Ryle were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, in recognition of their contribution to radioastronomy, including the discovery and identification of pulsars. His other honours include the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1969; and the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, 1977. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, from 1968; a Professor of the Royal Institution, from 1977; and an Honorary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from 1976. Antony Hewish died on 13 September 2021.