MAURICE HARDMAN

CATALOGUE

RECORDING

SUMMARY

BORN: London, 1921

LIVED: Leighland

RECORDING MADE: 2001

RECORDING LENGTH: 2 hours 30 minutes

Maurice Hardman's parents were interned in Shanghai in the war and his older brother died at Arnhem. He joined the RAF, became a pilot and went to Rhodesia where he taught people how to fly. He met his wife, also a doctor, shortly after he qualified.

He came to Exmoor in the mid-50s to set up a mobile practice on the Brendons. Within three years, largely by word of mouth, he had 1000 people on his books. It was a time when few people had cars and he spent his days driving around the hills in a specially adapted Land Rover, medicine bottles rattling in the back. He says visiting his patients supplied him with all the social life he needed.

He's an advocate of solar and wind generated power and has installed a solar panel on their roof. Since his retirement he has become an enthusiastic grower of vegetables. Digging is a splendid form of exercise, he says.

Note: Maurice Hardman's recording is not currently available online due to concerns with the sensitivity of the recording material. If you wish to listen to this recording, please visit one of the South West Heritage Trust's archive searchrooms.

Maurice Hardman died in July 2013.

Photograph by Mark J. Rattenbury