OBITUARY
SIR HAROLD BOLDERO
PHYSICIAN AND MEDICAL ADMINISTRATOR
Sir Harold Boldero, the well-known physician and medical administrator, died at his home in London on Wednesday.
He was Registrar of the Royal College of Physicians from 1942 up until the time of his death and a former Dean of Middlesex Medical School.
Harold Esmond Arnison Boldero was born in August 1889, the elder son of John Boldero, J.P., of Mark Cross, Sussex.
Educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Oxford, where he represented the university at athletics in 1911 and hockey in 1912, he did his clinical studies at Middlesex Hospital, qualifying with the Conjoint Board Diploma in 1915.
Serving in the B.E.F. from 1915 to 1919 Boldero rose to the rank of major in the R.A.M.C., being mentioned twice in dispatches.
He already showed his talent for administration by becoming D.A.D.M.S.
Returning to civil life he had junior appointments at Middlesex Hospital, eventually being elected to the staff there as assistant physician.
He obtained his B.M. Oxford in 1920 and D.M. in 1925.
His M.R.C.P. was obtained in 1922, and he was elected F.R.C.P. in 1933.
He showed an early interest in diseases of children and worked as a clinical assistant at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, in 1921.
This interest he continued in his early years at the Middlesex Hospital, where the junior physician in those days looked after the children
He also was on the staff of the Evelina Hospital for Children and St. Saviour's Hospital.
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It was, however, as a medical administrator that Boldero became best known.
Dean of the Medical School of the Middlesex Hospital and sector officer in the Emergency Medical Service during the First World War brought him great opportunity for his talents.
The University of London recognized this, and he became a member of the Senate and served for many years as chairman of the Board of Advanced Medical Studies.
He was an original member of the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and an experienced negotiator on various committees that represented the medical profession in discussions with the Ministry of Health.
A PERFECT PAIR
The Royal College of Physicians also recognized his ability and he served first as treasurer and then as registrar for many years, especially during the period of Lord Moran's presidency.
They made a perfect pair in promoting the college's influence during the events leading up to the creation of the National Health Service.
Boldero's own life was clouded by tragedy.
His wife Margery, daughter of Arthur Dunn, whom he married in 1917, was an invalid for some years before her death in 1950 and the elder of his two sons died in a shooting accident.
He himself had a severe illness about this time, but he recovered to throw himself once more into the work he so much enjoyed.
Boldero was knighted in 1950.
Whether on the hockey field, as in his younger days. or in the committee room. he conducted his "game" with skill and shrewdness, with a courtesy to his opponents and a frequent light remark when tension needed to be eased.
Middlesex Hospital and the college were his whole life for a long period and he will be greatly missed by all his colleagues.
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