Les was a magnificent swimmer, once swimming for the RAF. As only child living in a London upstairs flat and with a working mother, he was often lonely. So, as often as he could, he went to the local baths and taught himself to swim. He was as at home in and under the water as he was on dry land (as long as the water was warm) so in later life we tried to have a beach holiday each year somewhere in the mediterranean or the tropics. If there was an island in view, he would swim to it. On a boat trip he would dive over the side. If he was tired, he would lay back and float on his back. Most of all though, he would don his goggles and check out the fish, other sea life, shells and reefs under the surface. He played with a small octopus off a Greek island, swam around with marine iguanas in a Galapagos bay, and just managed to avoid a giant squid off a Malayan beach, As I wasn't much of a swimmer, I spent my time trying to find some shade on the beach, waiting to hear his report of everything he had seen.