BADLEY,

Bernard

Bernard was born in 1933, in London, England the second son of George and Eva Badley, both of whom were officers in the Salvation Army. Because their ministry took them to several parts of the United Kingdom, he started school in Scotland before moving to Yorkshire, then Nottingham, to Durham and, finally, Cardiff, Wales where he attended Whitchurch Grammar School, a school that stressed both academic excellence and sport and the arts. It was there that he learned to play (and love) rugby. Through his parents’ work in the Salvation Army, he had been introduced to music at a young age which he continued to pursue in school. As was expected by his family, Bernard left school at age 16 to get a job. After a short, and particularly unsuccessful career as a junior banker, he decided to return to Whitchurch. His decision was complicated by the fact that his parents were due to move yet again. Fortunately for him, his school bandmaster wanted to keep his soprano cornet player, so he and his wife offered to board Bernard for his final two years. Bernard then received a state scholarship that would pay his entire subsequent education. Bernard applied to the London University’s St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College (Barts) but was told that all the places were filled for that year. Shortly after, his school rugby team, of which he was captain, played against a group of alumni and their friends. One of them was wearing a blazer bearing a crest that read ‘St BHHMC’. Bernard chatted with him about the game and the role he had played, and the following week he received a telegram from Barts informing him that an unexpected vacancy had opened, so in September 1952 he entered Barts, graduating with his MBBS in 1957. After further training, he signed on with the Canadian forces for a three-year contract to fulfil his national service obligation. In the meantime, he had met a young German nurse, Ingeborg Mayer, who was the head nurse at the hospital he was working in. Despite the disastrous first impression he made on her; they fell in love. In January 1960, they were engaged, married in March, and by April they boarded the Empress of Ireland en route to Canada. Halifax, where they landed, was far different from the London they had left but it was only to be for three years before they returned to England. Those plans changed. By 1963, they were living in Inverness, Cape Breton, where Bernard became a rural practitioner. Bernard thrived in the role he played there, particularly with the guidance and friendship of Dr. Bernie Maclean, who he regarded as the epitome of a multiskilled rural practitioner. However, as Bernard had committed to return to Halifax to complete his specialty training, in 1965, now accompanied by daughter, Jennifer, and son, Andrew, they returned to Halifax.

This was the beginning of his career with Dalhousie Medical School and the Nova Scotia health care scene that would continue for the next 50 years. As one of the earliest Gastroenterologists on the East Coast, he reveled in his role as teacher to generations of medical students, and to the earliest of those postgraduates who trained under him who went on to become Gastroenterologists throughout the Maritimes. He assumed increasing administrative roles within the faculty, including Vice-dean, and with the Royal College of Canada where for several years he served as chief examiner for the specialty of Gastroenterology. At the Victoria General Hospital, he was asked by the Board of Commissioners to serve as the hospital’s executive director to fill a sudden vacancy. He did so for a year before returning to his clinical role. Several years later, he agreed to do it for another year, and at the end of this term he agreed to continue on as President and CEO, but only on the condition that he could make major structural changes disentangling the VG from the provincial civil service which bound it to all of its regulations, few of which were suited to running a tertiary care hospital! The Nova Scotian government agreed to this transition, which the media called ‘a mammoth task’. Under Bernard’s leadership, existing upper management ranks were eliminated and replaced by four externally recruited Vice Presidents and the tools and philosophy of Continuous Quality Improvement were embraced. Bernard returned to clinical practice and shortly before reaching 65, the age of mandatory retirement, Bernard was asked to become clinical consultant in Gastroenterology to the armed services hospital in Halifax, involving a clinic day and a procedure day each week. This was a perfect fit, and he enjoyed his time there immensely. He did, however, set his own deadline for his second retirement. He thought no one should be doing colonoscopies after age 80. He did retire from Stadacona at 80, however, again he was fortunate because a few years before he hit that milestone, he had been invited to become founding medical director of the Nova Scotia’s new Colon Cancer Prevention Program. He, together with his invaluable administrative lead, produced a novel program that was later copied by other provinces. Again, he set his own retirement deadline and retired (for the third time) after 10 years at age 85, exactly 60 years to the month from his graduation as a physician.

Throughout his life, apart from family, his two major interests were rugby and music. He played rugby at a high level throughout university but played for just a couple of years after coming to Canada, at a time when there was little of the game being played outside the services. Later, however, as the game began its resurgence, he began to referee and officiated at the Canada Games in Thunder Bay, Ont. He then became a Vice President of the Canadian Rugby Union and, later, Canada’s representative on the International Rugby Board’s medical advisory committee. He had not actively participated in musical activities for many years until, out of the blue, in 1979 he was asked to help a group of medical students and faculty members who had decided to form a concert band in the medical school but did not have a conductor. He agreed to help for six weeks until they found someone who was better qualified. That never happened and The Tupper Band was born. Bernard’s commitment stretched to over 40 years, ending only when the band could no longer meet last year due to COVID-19. He and his friend and ally Charles Hsuen decided that as the band’s concerts had to be cancelled, they would put together a series of ‘virtual concerts’ from the archives of the performances over the past 40 years. Those 25 concerts were sent to past and present band members as well as the Band’s many friends. You can view these concerts by going to http:// tupperband.medicine.dal.ca Bernard Badley died on April 30, 2021, at the age of 87. He was predeceased by his wife, Inge; and brother, Norris. He is survived by his daughter, Jennifer; son, Andrew (Stacey); granddaughter, Lauren; also by nephews, Ian (Julia) and David (Julie) in England. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the QEII Foundation in memory of Dr. Bernard W.D. Badley for the “The Badley Fellowship in Advanced Gastroenterology” fund QEII Foundation, 5657 Spring Garden Rd., Park Lane Mall, Floor M3, Box 231 Halifax, NS B3J 3R4 www.qe2foun dation.ca (902) 334-1546