Bolt was born in
Dunedin in 1893. He formed the Canterbury Aero Club in 1910, helping to make and fly gliders on the
Cashmere Hills. He used these to take aerial photographs in 1912. In 1916 Bolt was hired by pioneer pilot
Vivian Walsh as a mechanic at the
Walsh Brothers Flying School at
Kohimarama. He learnt to fly the brothers'
Curtiss flying boats and the machines of their own design, including the Walsh brothers Type D, as well as the two
Boeing and Westervelt floatplanes which were the first machines made by that company. In 1919 he flew New Zealand's first
air mail and established an altitude record of . In 1921 he flew from
Auckland to
Wellington in 5 hours and 16 minutes with stops at
Kawhia and
Wanganui with
Leo Walsh as passenger. His son
Richard Bolt also served in the RNZAF and rose to the rank of
air marshal. Bolt died in Auckland in 1963. ==Further reading==