Our friend Charles Boardman, who has died aged 89, was a bank manager, bibliophile and director of amateur dramatics in his home town of Edwalton, Nottinghamshire.
Charles was born in Warrington to Harry and Bertha Boardman. He attended Wade Deacon grammar school, Widnes, and gained a place to study medicine at the University of Liverpool, but left after the first year after failing some of the exams. He was called up for national service and became a sergeant instructor in the Royal Army Medical Corps, based in Aldershot.
In 1950 he joined the staff of the District Bank, which later became part of the National Westminster Bank. In 1951, he won the Charles Reeve memorial prize for English with the Institute of Bankers’ exams. Charles served at branches in St Helens, Manchester and London (city office and Oxford Street). He went to Cambridge for his first managership in 1968, then to West Bridgford, Nottingham, in 1976, and Arnold, Nottingham, in 1981. He retired in 1987.
Charles was a huge book-lover and made consistently thoughtful contributions to the Guardian’s readers’ books of the year. Last year he chose Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night as well as new books by Tessa Hadley and Robert Harris. Over the years he enthused about his favourites, including Lydia Davis, Helen Dunmore and Alice Munro.
He gave friends parcels of books regularly and generously. Each book was carefully chosen, and accompanied by a typed advice note. This could include encouragement to try a new author as well as requests for feedback.
He was an active member of the Anglican church, and served for many years, first as treasurer (when he was famed for his theatrical and very amusing presentations of the annual accounts), and then as churchwarden at the Church of the Holy Rood in Edwalton.
He also loved music, opera, and the theatre, as well as the Archers and Coronation Street – and his cairn terrier, Emily. He directed many ambitious amateur plays in Edwalton with remarkable success, and held vinyl evenings for friends, with music drawn from his huge collection of LPs.
Sheila Adam and John Mitchell
