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DR MAURICE
HARDMAN
Born:
London, 1921
Lived:
Leighland
Recording made: 2001
Length of recording:
2 hrs 30 mins
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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 landrover, 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.