Rupert Vallentine, an Australian professor of engineering, dies.
At war he discovered teaching – ad hoc talks to troops and chess to Japanese POWs… At home, he listened to music, smoked from a stubby white cigarette holder and developed from first principles a way of cleaning the pool by swimming with one leg straight which drew leaves into the centre by centrifugal force. He sang his children to sleep with a mouth organ and when they were asked at school to nominate a religion he suggested: “Theodolite”. It worked.