11 Facts About Bob Symes

Whilst his mother and sister travelled onwards to the United States, Bob Symes contacted a former British diplomat in Vienna, a family friend who was once stationed in Cairo.

Environmental techniques that Symes had developed for environmental living resulted in the 1990s series The House that Bob Built, in which a "green" dwelling was constructed at Milton Keynes.

Bob Symes created inventions in metal engineering, and held patents in plumbing.

Bob Symes was instrumental in setting up the Institute of Patentees and Inventors in 1989, which he chaired twice, and then launched National Invent-A-Thing Week in 1992.

Bob Symes established the Border Union Railway Company in 1969, to restore, maintain and introduce new services along the recently abandoned Waverley Line between Edinburgh and Carlisle.

Bob Symes's family opened the railway every year to raise funds for the BBC's Children in Need, where visitors could take tea and cake and see his collection of vintage tractors.

Bob Symes was the president of a Guildford-based model railway circle called Astolat MRC.

Bob Symes twice stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in Mid Sussex as a Liberal candidate in February and October 1974.

Bob Symes was later selected by the Conservatives as a European parliamentary candidate.

Bob Symes held the Special Constabulary Long Service Medal as a Special Constable.

Bob Symes was made a companion of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and awarded the Knight's Cross by the President of Austria, in recognition of his work in promoting Anglo-Austrian relations.