David Bolt was a former President of the BMA. He was born in Llandaff, Glamorgan, on 21 September 1921. His father, Ernest Albert John, was a clerk in holy orders. His mother was Hilda Irene, née David. After Queen Elizabeth's Hospital School, Bristol, Bolt won a city senior scholarship to the University of Bristol, where he qualified in 1945. He was house surgeon at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and demonstrator in anatomy. He then did his National Service in the RAF medical branch. He subsequently held registrar posts in Bristol, St Mary's (under Arthur Porritt and Dickson Wright) and the West Middlesex Hospital. In 1960 he was appointed consultant surgeon at the West Middlesex Hospital. There he developed a sound reputation. He also consulted privately for some time in Harley Street, but was never as comfortable there as he was in his beloved 'West Mid'. Always a supporter of the BMA and his local division, he came to medical politics relatively late, joining the central committee for hospital medical services in 1970. He soon joined Tony Grabham as part of the negotiating team when Barbara Castle became Secretary of State to the DHSS and set about trying to phase out private beds and facilities from the NHS, a repudiation of the original contract with Aneurin Bevan. Battle lines were drawn and consultants were on the brink of a strike when David Bolt provided a simple but effective compromise. Bolt's suggestions were adopted by Lord Goodman who drew them up in the form of the 'Cullompton Principle' (Cullompton, a small town in Devon, actually had no hospital). He was a member of the GMC and chairman of its conduct committee. He was vice president of the BMA in 1983 and President in 1987. In 1955 David married Phyllis Margaret (Peggy) Fudge. They had two daughters, Angela and Caroline. Peggy predeceased him and he was married for a second time, to Joan. He listed his hobbies as motor boat cruising, tree planting and walking. He retired to Honiton and died on 21 March 2002 after a long illness at the Castle Valley Centre, by a strange coincidence, in Cullompton.