Edwin Nigel Wardle was born on 24th October 1934 in Grimsby. From Wintringham Grammer School which he left in 1952 with the Cambridge Examination Board Prize he moved to Gonville and Caius Cambridge. He joined the Caius Medical Association in 1953. In 1955 he moved to Guy’s Hospital and qualified with a double first in 1958. 

Between 1960-2 he completed his National Service serving as a Captain in the Royal Army medical Corps for some of the time based in Aden. His first of many publications was printed in the BMJ 1961 Jul 22 ‘Sign of diaphragmatic involvement’. After periods in pathology and haematology in Manchester he moved to work on experimental and clinical nephrology in Newcastle upon Tyne in the late 1960’s with David Kerr’s group. In 1974 he was named as the 1st Halliday Croom Lecturer, Royal College Physicians Edinburgh.

A physician with a wide interest in many specialities he eventually became Associate Professor in Nephrology in Saudi Arabia in in 1986. His interest in Acute Kidney Injury mutated to contemplation of drug therapies for glomerulonephritis which continued to be of interest well into retirement. He had a  fascination for immunology, his final book published in 2010 was ‘Guide to Signal Pathways in Immune Cells’.

Nigel Wardle described himself as a ‘shy highly motivated Physician and investigator’ but many would describe him as ‘reserved’ , But to me he was just ’dad’. A man, whose passion for treating renal disease brought me to my 30 year + career as a renal dietitian. He had an ability to easily learn languages, a skill learned from his father that he passed on to my brother. An active energetic man with a love of the outdoors particularly hill walking, he also aged 50 took up running. Following retirement he and Diane made their home in Oxford. He died on 19th May 2020 ironically due to AKI related to COVID-19.

Author: Yvonne Bradburn