Obituary: Shirley Bolt – former Hythe GP and psychosexual therapist
FORMER Hythe GP and psychosexual therapist Shirley Bolt has died aged 86.
Shirley was a practice partner at Hythe Medical Centre – now Waterside Health Centre – in Beaulieu Road, and worked part-time for ExxonMobil as an on-site GP at the company’s Fawley refinery.
Born in Hong Kong in 1934 to a military family, Shirley moved to England after winning a scholarship to the Royal School for Daughters of Officers of the Army in Bath.
She went on to study medicine at Girton College, Cambridge, and later, during her residency at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, she met her first husband Dr Thomas Moles – known as Mike.
Shirley returned to Hong Kong when Mike took up a posting with the Royal Army Medical Corp, and they enjoyed life in Repulse Bay with their four children, Mandy, Rory, Jono and Lucy.
Years later the family settled on the Waterside in Langley, and Shirley joined Hythe Medical Centre, where she continued to care for patients until her retirement. She was also a psychosexual therapist.
Her marriage to Mike broke down in 1977 and Shirley later married John Coleman, a BBC documentary producer.
Daughter Lucy said the two were “true soul mates”, travelling the world, raising money for charities and spending happy times socialising with their many friends and family at their home in Langley.
“In retirement, mum became an accomplished and fearless potter and a gifted maker of embroidery and quilts,” said Lucy. “Her work was exhibited at the Barbican Art Gallery in London.
“She and John took up skiing in their 60s and mum learned to scuba dive, remaining very fit and active until shortly before her death.”
After John died in 2008, Shirley moved to a farmhouse in the Derbyshire countryside to be closer to her eldest daughter Mandy and her family.
“Mum made a beautiful and welcoming home there, but she never really recovered from the loss of her beloved husband,” said Lucy.
Shirley leaves behind her four children, her step-children Iain and Anne, grandchildren Freya and Sorrel, Edie and Flynn and Mallory and Angus, step-grandchildren David and Alice, and step-great-grandchild Patrick.
Shirley died after a short illness on 7th December surrounded by her family at home.
