Abstract
Lord Boyle of Handsworth, who died in October far too young (he was fifty-eight), was one of the original patrons of WSET: his name was a guarantee of the integrity and seriousness of any cause to which he lent it. His death will be felt by many such causes and over a remarkably wide field of endeavour. A large, untidy figure with a warm heart, a formidable mind, and pockets crammed with papers dealing with a multitude of interests, he could hold his own with specialists on most subjects under the sun and in some matters — for example, important areas of musical scholarship and the performances of cricketers past and present — could confound them.