Edwin Nigel Wardle was born on 24 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 before moving to Guy’s Hospital in 1955 and qualifying with a double first in 1958.
From 1960-1962 Edwin 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 specialties, he eventually became Associate Professor in Nephrology in Saudi Arabia in in 1986. His interest in Acute Kidney Injury then mutated to contemplation of drug therapies for glomerulonephritis, which continued to be of interest well into retirement. With 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,’ and 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 plus 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 took up running aged 50. Following retirement he and Diane made their home in Oxford.
He died on 19 May 2020, ironically due to AKI related to COVID-19.
