My brother, Don Walsh, who has died aged 89, was an expert in electronics who moved into academia, after which he became involved in a number of research programmes and wrote a popular university text book.
Don was born in Canonbury, north London, to Lawrence, a Post Office employee, and Ethel (nee Dunbar), a garment worker. He began his secondary education in 1936 at Mitcham boys’ grammar school in south London, on a scholarship. But his schooling was interrupted in 1940 when he was evacuated with our mother and me to lodge with relatives in rural Huntingdonshire. Life in those parts was still surprisingly basic; we had no mains water, electricity, gas or sewage system. Water came from a hand pump in the scullery and had to be heated on a fire that was also our only means of cooking. Our mother being in poor health, much of this work fell to Don.
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