A long time member and president of Ilkley’s Olicana Bridge Club has died at the age of 84.

Leslie Booth Jones, known to most as Les, died peacefully at his home in Ben Rhydding on November 8. His great love was bridge, and he had been a member of Olicana Bridge Club for many years.

He was a member of the first team that was promoted to the Yorkshire first division in 2012 and was the serving president when he died.

Born in September 1929 in the Welsh mining village of Penrhiwceiber in the Cynon Valley, he had a brilliant academic career, including a First Class honours degree in mathematics at Swansea University.

His first job was in the aircraft industry, working in the design department working for English Electric, which included working on the Lightning, Canberra, and TSR2 jets, as well as the early stages of Concord.

In 1964, he was appointed as a lecturer in the Maths faculty at Bradford University, when he moved to Ilkley, which remained his home for the rest of his life.

He obtained a PHD in 1967 for his research into the supersonic bang effect on aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound He took early retirement from Bradford University in 1987 and worked for two years as a senior lecturer in mathematics at Sultan Qaboos university in Oman.

He loved the outdoors and was a keen hill walker, particularly enjoying the Yorkshire Dales, and also enjoyed walking holidays to Snowdonia well into his 80s.

He and his wife, Mayona, who died in 2004, had a keen interest in natural history and had been members of the Wharfedale Naturalists.

His family said he was renowned for his sense of humour and ready laugh.

He leaves his children, Gareth, Sian and Huw, grandchildren Ben, William, Emily, Joella and Janelle, and his sister, Phyllis, who still lives in the Cynon Valley.