[4] He resumed his academic studies part time after a hiatus of some years and was awarded a PhD from the University of Leicester in 1985 in Geology and History of Science for his thesis on the life and work of Dean William Buckland (1784–1856), geologist and speleologist.

[1] In 1968, aged 28, he was appointed director of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery for Exeter City Council, retaining that position until 1972.

[7] One of the first exhibitions he mounted was a one-man show in August–September 1968 of the works of the illustrator and cartoonist George Adamson, who lived locally.

[11] Among many achievements at the New Walk Museum under Boylan's directorship was the loan exhibition German Impressionism and Expressionism from Leicester held at Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, from 12 November to 20 December 1985.

[14] In 2004 he was appointed professor emeritus of heritage policy and management, City University, London.

He organised through the Rotary Club a musical event around his discovery of a Mrs Austin who became a successful singer in the United States: "Finding Leicester's Mrs Austin ... America’s First International Prima Donna", held at Leicester's Unitarian Chapel on 29 March 2019.

[24] The following year he published a learned article about the little-known Tudor composer Hugh Aston, some of whose work survived the almost complete destruction of manuscripts in the Catholic tradition during the English Reformation.

[25] A lifelong interest in oenology was first aroused when he worked for a wine merchant while a student at Hull.

[26] In 1996, the Republic of Croatia bestowed on him the Order of Danica Hrvatska, a high-ranking medal awarded for cultural achievements.

[30] His contribution to the study of museology and cultural preservation both tangible and intangible was substantial and, as outlined in the foreword to his UNESCO reassessment of the 1954 Hague Convention,[32] his especial concern for cultural conservation began with his childhood memories of war-damaged Hull.